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JESUS  CHRIST,, 

IN  HUMAN 
EXPERIENCE 


By 

MEADE  E.   DUTT 


CINCINNATI 

The   Standard  Publishing  Company 


Copyright,  1916 
The  Standard  Publishing  Company 


This  volume  is  affectionately 
inscribed  to 

MY  WIFE 

who  for  twelve  years  has  been 
my  companion,  counselor  and 

critic. 

The  Author 


CONTENTS 

Introductory  Note 7 

Introduction 9 

I    Wisdom's  Search 11 

II    Herod  :  Hatred  Gone  Mad  .  24 

III  Mary:  Poetic  Motherhood.  35 

IV  Zacharias:    The    Fruitage 

OF  Patience 45 

V   John  the  Baptist:  The  De- 
nial OF  Self 57 

VI    NicoDEMUs:  Aristocrat.  ...     72 

VII    A  Soul's  Awakening 86 

VIII   The  NoBLEiMAN:  Drawn  or 

Driven 98 

IX   The    Border   of   His    Gar- 
ment      112 

X   The  Tragedy  of  Opportu- 
nity      123 

5 


CONTENTS 

XI    Bartim^us  :  Light  Through 

Darkness   135 

XII    Jesus  and  the  Tax  Collec- 
tor      146 

XIII  Martha:  The  Tyranny  of 

Things 158 

XIV  The  Soul  OF  a  Samaritan  . .    170 

XV   Pontius  Pilate  :  The  Sin  of 

Compromise 182    ^ 

XVI    Simon  of  Cyrene:  Compul- 
sory Service 193 

XVII    Barabbas:    Vicarious    Suf- 
fering     207 

XVIII   Joseph:    The    Unexpected 

Man 222 

XIX   Mary:  The  Slandered  Mag- 
dalene ..  .• 234 

XX   Disposing  of  Troublesome 

Facts 246 


INTRODUCTORY  NOTE 

TN  the  preparation  of  this  volume  I  have 
not  consulted  the  trinity  —  Exegesis, 
Homiletics  and  Logic — and  it  is  probable 
that  there  have  been  grave  crimes  com- 
mitted against  each  of  them.  I  have  taken 
a  few — not  all — of  the  New  Testament 
characters  other  than  the  Apostles,  and  have 
striven  to  point  out  a  few  of  the  places 
where  Jesus  Christ  touched  their  experi- 
ences, believing  that  human  nature  remains 
constant  throughout  the  centuries,  and  that 
what  was  helpful  to  mankind  two  thousand 
years  ago  will  be  helpful  to  him  to-day. 

It  has  not  been  my  purpose  to  make  these 
studies  expository  as  such.  If  any  are  in 
search  of  grammatical  niceties  or  models  of 
exegesis,  they  are  referred  to  the  critical 
and  explanatory  commentaries,  and  such 
other  works  as  deal  with  the  constructive 
speech  of  the  New  Testament.  I  have  set 
forth  with  the  deliberate  Intention  of  for- 
getting the  hard-and-fast  rules  of  homiletics. 
Far  be  It  from  me  to  pull  the  petals  from 

T 


INTRODUCTORY   NOTE 


the  rose.  I  prefer  to  admire  It  as  a  whole 
— to  preserve  its  delicate  color  and  enjoy 
its  subtle  odor,  recording  some  of  my  im- 
pressions as  I  have  sat  by  it,  without  the 
microscopic  glass  of  the  exegete  and  the 
text  critic.  If  these  chapters  have  some 
humble  part  in  helping  men  to  a  better 
knowledge  of  our  common  Lord  and  Mas- 
ter, I  shall  be  satisfied. 

The  Author. 


INTRODUCTION 

'  I  ^HE  most  important  question  known  to 
"■*  the  modern  mind  is  the  place  of  Christ 
In  human  life.  Its  story  is  a  spiritual 
romance.  St.  Paul  called  it  *'the  mystery 
which  hath  been  hid  for  ages  and  genera- 
tions," but  said  also,  ''Now  it  hath  been 
manifested  to  his  saints,  to  whom  God  was 
well  pleased  to  make  known  what  is  the 
riches  of  the  glory  of  this  mystery  among 
the  Gentiles,  which  Is  Christ  in  you  the 
hope  of  glory." 

We  can  Imagine  nothing  higher  than 
this.  It  Is  man's  main  chance  in  the  uni- 
verse. The  coming  of  Christ  transfigures 
personality.  His  "love  makes  great  the 
great  and  small."  The  presence  of  these 
transfigured  personalities  In  the  world  puri- 
fies society  and  throws  over  humanity,  as 
light  hovers  about  flowers,  the  golden  glow 
of  the  eternal.  It  Is  the  secret  of  the 
Church  and  the  hidden  life  which  makes  the 
human  race  grow  toward  the  morning. 

This  book  Is  an  exposition  in  concrete 

9 


INTRODUCTION 


examples  of  these  fascinating  ideas.  It 
tells  how  Christ's  personality  influences  and 
develops  human  personality;  how  he  illu- 
mines all  the  questions  of  this  serious  and 
perplexing  world,  and  how  as  men  receive 
him  they  become  invested  with  the  moral 
omnipotence  which  gives  victory  over  inner 
weakness  and  adverse  environment,  and 
elevates  the  soul  to  spiritual  greatness. 

It  is  a  book  of  doctrines  and  devotions, 
of  ethics  and  ideals,  which  will  at  once 
satisfy  the  weaver  of  dreams  and  the  doer 
of  deeds.  Those  who  read  well  its  spark- 
ling pages  will  learn  what  it  is  to  be  a 
Christian,  and  find  the  way  to  the  life  which 
lies  perpetually  under  the  enchantment  of 
the  Christ  experience.  B.  A.  Abbott. 
Union  Avenue  Christian  Church,  St. 
Louis,  Mo. 


10 


I 

WISDOM^S  SEARCH 
(Matt.  2: 1,  2.) 

T  T  NDER  the  dreamy  skies  of  starlit 
^  India,  Persia  and  Arabia,  the  sons  of 
men  spun  the  first  threads  of  the  higher  wis- 
dom, and  gradually  wove  them  Into  the 
fabric  of  human  thought — subtle  philos- 
ophy, mysticism,  and,  strangest  of  all  relig- 
ious phenomena,  prophecy.  Deep  in  the 
heart  of  the  ancient  Orient  the  order  of 
the  Magi  developed.  They  did  not  lust 
for  world-extensive  empire,  nor  had  they 
an  ear  for  the  clash  of  the  sword.  The 
Phalanx  and  the  Solid  Square  were  not 
their  inventions.  Their  wonder-book  was 
the  clear  blue  vault  of  the  Eastern  sky,  and 
its  pages  they  scanned  with  eager  eyes  for 
some  token  of  the  eternal  God. 

^  It  may  be  that  the  hopes  of  Israel  had 
filtered  through  the  East;  that  some  burn- 
ing coal  from  Isaiah's  altar  had  fallen  in 
their  midst,  some  Paul  among  the  Areopa-^ 
11 


JESUS    CHRIST    IN    HUMAN    EXPERIENCE 

gites,  a  captive,  a  traveler,  yet  withal  a 
generous  soul  who  had  unfolded  to  them 
the  expectations  of  Israel.  It  may  be  that 
the  wild  sons  of  Ishmael  possessed  some  of 
that  religious  genius  which  characterized 
their  Hebrew  cousins.  At  any  rate,  in  the 
heart  of  Asia  men  were  feeling  after  God, 
hoping  they  might  find  him.  And  when 
that  strange,  new  star  suddenly  blazed  in 
the  heavens,  their  hunger  for  a  more  com- 
plete knowledge  of  God  was  intensified,  and 
they  were  led  out,  by  the  inner  power  of 
the  irresistible,  toward  the  land  of  Jacob; 
yet,  -like  the  great  Abraham,  they  jour- 
neyed not  knowing  whither  they  went,  but 
confidently  expecting  a  splendid  consumma- 
tion of  their  pilgrimage. 

I 

Man  is  a  restless  creature.  There  is  a 
spark  of  eternal  fire  in  his  breast  which  is 
never  satisfied.  It  is  constantly  urging  him 
into  strange  places — pointing  out  difficult 
roads — creating  in  his  mind  fancies  which 
taunt  him  with  their  interrogations.  If  we 
are  normal,  we  are  all  Columbuses;  the 
pull  of  the  horizon  is  tremendous;  few  can 
resist  the  challenge  of  mystery.     We  ven- 

12 


WISDOM'S   SEARCH 


ture  mightily  if  there  is  the  barest  possi- 
bility of  adding  the  smallest  jot  to  our 
treasures.  We  are  born  hungry — hungry 
to  know;  and  this  is  the  hunger  that  drives 
us  out  to  follow  the  star  because  it  promises 
something. 

And  in  this  man  reveals  the  divine 
within  him.  How  else  can  we  explain 
God's  creative  acts?  Why  the  universe, 
the  earth,  and  man?  Why  did  not  God 
retain  them  as  an  idea  simply,  reposing  in 
his  mind?  Earth  was  not  needed  either 
for  throne  or  footstool,  and  man  himself 
supplies  nothing  essential  to  the  nature  of 
God.  But  there  is  a  side  of  the  divine 
nature  which  can  be  satisfied  only  in  the 
expenditure  of  creative  energy.  It  expressed 
itself  primarily  in  the  formation  of  matter; 
secondly,  in  intelligence,  .  and,  lastly,  in 
redemption.  These  are  worthy  of  the  mind 
of  God,  and  in  them  we  believe  he  takes 
profound  delight. 

As  man  is  the  offspring  of  God,  it  Is 
but  natural  that  he  should  undertake  crea- 
tive feats  of  greater  or  less  magnitude ;  and 
thus  he  does — in  the  physical,  mental  and 
spiritual  realms.  The  continent  he  has 
belted  together  with  steel,  our  shelves  re- 

13 


JESUS    CHRIST    IN    HUMAN    EXPERIENCE 

veal  the  expenditure  of  his  intellect,  and 
the  Bible  and  history  have  shown  the 
created  spiritual  life  in  thousands  of  indi- 
vidual hearts.  Men  are  transforming  ab- 
stract theological  ideas  into  concrete  re- 
demptive reahties,  but  it  is  a  creative 
process. 

There  were  a  myriad  stars  in  those 
Oriental  skies — they  varied  in  magnitude 
and  brilliancy — but  none  of  them  thrilled 
the  Wise-men  until  the  star  of  Bethlehem 
appeared.  It  was  an  invitation — it  called 
for  action;  it  excited  the  spirit  of  explora- 
tion; it  was  a  challenge.  Had  not  the 
East — aye,  the  whole  world — ^been  waiting 
for  the  doors  of  God  to  open;  and  was 
not  this  his  token?  But  to  whom  it  might 
lead — or  where — they  little  knew;  but  they 
followed  on. 

We  miss  many  a  glorious  thing  because 
our  eyes  are  downward.  Stars  appear  in 
the  heavens,  not  in  the  muck-bank  nor  in 
the  ledger  column.  There  are  swamps  of 
unbelief  and  bogs  of  fad  in  our  society,  and 
over  them  hangs  many  an  elusive  will-o'- 
the-wisp,  but,  when  pursued,  they  lead  no- 
where. The  tragedy  is  that  many  have 
taken    these    elusive    lights    for    stars    to 

14 


WISDOM'S    SEARCH 


guide,  and  when  they  should  be  on  the 
solid  earth  they  are  left  floundering  in  the 
darkness  and  mire — alone. 

It  was  the  star  of  Bethlehem  that 
thrilled  the  slow,  plodding  East  into  action. 
It  led  those  men  on  a  long,  difficult  journey, 
among  strange  and  hostile  people,  through 
innumerable  perils  by  the  way;  but  always 
the  eager  question  was  on  their  lips: 
*'Where  is  He?"  So  ask  the  multitude  in 
their  weariness,  earnestly,  and  often  pathet- 
ically: "Where  is  He?"  Above  all  things 
else,  the  Church  of  our  Lord  must  reveal 
him  to  those  whose  lives  are  barren. 

Life  can  not  be  complete  without  some 
satisfying  knowledge  of  its  source,  mission 
and  destiny.  We  do  not  exist  as  castles  in 
the  air,  without  foundation;  the  life  of  the 
soul  rests  in  the  infinite  God.  In  him  only 
can  we  explain  the  intricate  mysteries  of 
human  existence — its  passions,  affections, 
longings,  hopes  and  fears.  In  touching 
Jesus  Christ  the  soul  touches  God;  it  is  not 
galvanized,  but  vitalized;  it  is  quickened  by 
a  new  spirit;  it  becomes  a  **new  creation." 
Its  life  is  not  measured  by  duration,  but  by 
hearts  touched,  souls  enriched,  burdens 
lifted,  gospel  applied.     Since  the  coming  of 

15 


JESUS    CHRIST    IN    HUMAN    EXPERIENCE 

Christ  men  have  learned  to  turn  thought 
back  upon  Spirit,  and  have  discovered  some- 
thing of  the  wisdom  of  redemption.  We 
have  learned  by  bitter  experience  that  the 
body  is  mortal,  but  what  we  expend  upon 
the  soul  is  treasure  for  eternity.  The  life 
of  the  soul,  therefore,  spells  fruitage  and 
reproduction,  and  the  soul  that  has  these 
has  arrived  at  the  manger;  it  has  learned 
the  secret  of  the  Lord. 

II 

It  is  singular  that  Jesus  gave  to  the 
world  no  carefully  prepared  statement  of 
his  doctrines;  he  prepared  no  formula,  no 
syllogism,  no  philosophical  dissertation. 
This  is  all  the  more  remarkable  when  we 
know  that  the  fulfillment  of  his  mission 
depended  on  men's  understanding  of  him. 
All  that  the  world  knows  of  his  teaching 
is  what  a  few  men  gathered  out  of  their 
memories  after  he  had  left  them.  But  in 
those  brief  chapters  is  revealed  "the  wisdom 
of  God  and  the  power  of  God."  They  are 
"seed,"  they  are  "dynamite" — "seed"  In  the 
heart  growing  into  new  life,  "dynamite"  In 
society  tearing  up  the  false  and  unjust 
standards  and  loosening  up  the  stony  hearts 

16 


WISDOM'S   SEARCH 


of  men  for  the  seed  of  the  Kingdom.  "If 
a  man  thirst,  let  him  come  to  me  and 
drink  f'  "I  am  the  bread  of  lifef^  "I  am 
the  good  shepherd."  Men  never  heard 
such  teaching  before.  Not  only  were  the 
sons  of  Abraham  hungry  for  the  bread 
which  did  not  perish,  but  the  dwellers  of 
Mesopotamia  and  the  uttermost  parts  as 
well.  Christ  meets  the  most  commonplace 
hungers  in  the  hearts  of  men. 

After  all,  does  the  wisdom  of  this  world 
answer  the  questions  which  most  trouble 
and  perplex  the  heart  of  man?  Is  the 
multitude  hungry  for  a  perfectly  scientific 
and  philosophical  definition  of  "time"  and 
"space"?  Is  the  plowman  interested  in  the 
development  of  the  single  cell  into  the  com- 
plex organism  of  the  human  body?  No; 
he  is  listening  for  the  voice  which  speaks 
of  lightened  loads.  That  the  sun  shines 
and  the  showers  fall  are  facts  sufficient  for 
him.  The  wisdom  of  Jesus  is  not  in  ab- 
stract discussions,  but  in  concrete  realities. 
"Whether  he  is  a  sinner,  I  know  not:  but 
one  thing  I  know,  that,  whereas  I  was 
blind,  I  now  see."  That  was  worth  ten 
thousand  technical  lectures  on  cataracts  and 
paralysis  of  the  optic  nerve.     This  is  the 

2  IT 


JESUS    CHRIST    IN    HUMAN    EXPERIENCE 

superiority  of  the  wisdom  of  action  over 
the  wisdom  of  theory. 

Human  wisdom  left  to  itself  is  likely 
to  feel  its  limitations  most  keenly — even  to 
chafe  under  any  restraint.  Note  the  effect 
these  limitations  had  on  some  of  the  poetic 
geniuses : 

"Still  thou  art  blest  compared  wi*  me! 
The  present  only  touches  thee ; 
But,  och !  I  backward  cast  my  e'e 

On  prospects  drear ! 
An'  forward,  though  I  canna'  see, 

I  guess  an'  fear." 

"We  look  before  and  after, 

And  pine  for  what  is  not; 
Our  sincerest  laughter 

With  some  pain  is  fraught; 
Our  sweetest  songs  are  those  that  tell 

The  saddest  thought." 

They  have  no  message  for  the  weary 
heart.  Not  so  with  Jesus;  he  does  not 
"guess  an'  fear.*'  He  is  never  clearer  or 
more  authoritative  than  when  he  stands  at 
the  border.  He  speaks  of  "my  Father's 
house"  with  a  familiarity  born  out  of  long 
and  intimate  acquaintance.  He  speaks  of 
the  glory  he  had  with  the  Father  before 
the  world  was,  a  relation  so  inherent  that 
it  is  sacrilege  to  question  it.     He  stood  at 

18 


WISDOM'S   SEARCH 


the  grave  of  Lazarus  and  calmly  declared: 
*'I  am  the  resurrection  and  the  life."  Auda- 
ciously he  announced:  *'I  am  the  door:  no 
man  cometh  unto  the  Father,  but  by  me.'* 
In  such  he  is  insistent.  And  who  can  ques- 
tion his  right?  He  is  the  revelation  of  the 
Father.  He  is  the  Mediator  between  a 
holy  God  and  a  sinful  man;  divine,  knowing 
the  nature  of  God;  human,  knowing  the 
frailty  of  the  flesh.  "Tempted  in  all  points 
like  as  we  are,  yet  without  sin." 

The  spontaneous  question  on  the  lips 
of  all  those  who  heard  Jesus  was:  "Whence 
hath  this  man  this  wisdom?"  That  he 
possessed  it  could  not  be  gainsaid  even  by 
his  enemies.  When  a  son  has  complete 
knowledge  of  his  father's  plans,  he  takes 
delight  in  handling  every  transaction  care- 
fully and  discreetly,  because  it  is  his  father's 
business.  Jesus  had  complete  knowledge  of 
his  Father's  plans,  hence  the  wisdom  and 
authority  with  which  he  spoke  and  acted. 
When  men  tried  to  force  him  into  a  corner 
they  found  themselves  impaled  on  the  horns 
of  their  own  dilemma. 

Christ  did  not  write  his  wisdom  in 
musty  books  to  be  forgotten;  he  gave  it 
the  perennial  life  of  the  lily,  the  grass  and 

19 


JESUS    CHRIST    IN    HUMAN    EXPERIENCE 

the  sparrow.  He  gave  it  freshness  from 
Genneseret,  and  strength  from  the  hills  of 
Judah;  from  the  winds  he  gave  it  dominion, 
and  from  the  sky,  clearness.  He  gave  it 
power  from  the  tempests  of  Galilee,  and 
persuasion  from  the  springtime.  He  gave 
it  light  from  the  sun,  depth  from  eternity, 
and  life  from  himself, 

III 

Our  mortal  spirits  hover  between  the 
states  of  joy  and  sorrow,  and  our  whole 
human  experience  is  colored  by  them.  Into 
these  experiences  the  Christ  projects  himself 
wearing  a  number  of  titles  which  signify 
his  various  offices,  but  the  most  singular 
appellation  is  "Man  of  sorrows."  He  wept 
at  the  grave  of  his  friend  Lazarus.  He 
gave  the  multitude  a  hard  saying  about 
eating  his  flesh  and  drinking  his  blood,  and 
many  of  his  disciples  thereupon  turned  back 
and  walked  no  more  with  him.  He  looked 
upon  Jerusalem  through  patriotic  tears,  see- 
ing a  bank  raised  against  her  and  a  pagan 
army  pounding  at  her  walls.  While  he  was 
breaking  the  bread  and  passing  the  cup, 
Judas  was  selling  him;  In  the  garden  his 
disciples   slept,   and   at  the   cross   they   all 

20 


WISDOM'S   SEARCH 


forsook  him  and  fled.  Sorrow  was  his 
portion,  and  he  tasted  death  foi:  every  man. 
Sorrow  is  part  of  mortal  experience, 
the  fruit  of  the  tree,  and  as  long  as  we  are 
In  the  body  we  may  expect  it.  But  note 
the  wisdom  of  Jesus  how  he  would  fortify 
us  against  loss:  "Lay  not  up  for  yourselves 
treasures  on  earth,  but  In  heaven."  "Set 
your  affections  on  things  above,  not  on 
things  earthly,"  counseled  the  apostle  who 
probably  knew  best  the  heart  of  the  Mas- 
ter. Woven  through  the  somber  garment 
of  human  sorrow  Is  the  golden  thread:  "We 
shall  be  like  him  when  he  shall  appear"  In 
glory.  Sorrow  teaches  that  the  mission  of 
life  is  not  found  In  serving  self,  but  in 
serving  others.  Sorrow  prepares  the  soul 
for  God. 

"O  cross  that  llftest  up  my  head, 
I  dare  not  ask  to  fly  from  thee; 
I  lay  in  dust  life's  glory  dead, 
And  from  the  ground  there  blossoms  red 
Life  that  shall  endless  be." 

But  the  joys  of  this  world  are  by  no 
means  confined  to  anticipation.  Jesus  was 
interested  In  the  social  life  of  the  people, 
else  how  can  we  explain  his  presence  at  the 
wedding    in    Cana?      Did    he    sit   In    their 

21 


JESUS    CHRIST    IN    HUMAN    EXPERIENCE 

midst  a  pale,  dyspeptic  saint,  radiating 
gloom  over  their  festivities?  If  Jesus  was 
entirely  a  Man  of  sorrows,  then  the  angels 
should  have  sung  a  ^'Miserere''  instead  of 
a  *'Te  Deum.'^  Jesus  taught  men  to  get 
at  a  pleasure  deeper  and  more  satisfying 
than  the  convivialities  of  the  dining-room. 
Seek  reconciliation  with  the  man  who  has 
wronged  you,  love  your  enemies,  pray  for 
your  persecutors,  preach  the  gospel  to  the 
whole  creation.  This  is  the  Christian's 
joy — a  joy  made  full  when  the  sheaves  are 
gathered,  the  joy  of  the  husbandman  at 
the  vintage,  the  joy  of  the  shepherd  that 
brings  back  the  sheep  that  was  lost,  the 
father's  joy  when  he  clasps  to  his  heart 
the  prodigal  boy.  It  is  the  joy  of  saving 
men;  and  no  other  joy  is  worth  while,  and 
no  other  joy  is  abiding. 

There  was  joy  in  Samaria  because  Philip 
preached  Christ  unto  them;  the  Ethiopian 
went  on  his  way  rejoicing  because  he  had 
found  Jesus  Christ;  the  household  of  Cor- 
nelius magnified  God,  and  the  disciples  of 
Iconium  were  filled  with  joy  at  Paul's 
preaching.  Why  all  this  joy?  Because  the 
wisdom  of  Jesus  Christ  touches  all  phases 
of   human   need.      Human    experience    has 

22 


WISDOM'S    SEARCH 


been  enriched  and  glorified  by  the  paradox 
of  Christianity,  a  stumbling-block  to  the 
Jew  and  foolishness  to  the  Greek,  but  to 
us  that  are  saved  it  is  the  power  of  God. 
*'We  speak  wisdom,  however,  among  them 
that  are  fullgrown:  yet  a  wisdom  not  of 
this  world,  nor  of  the  rulers  of  this  world, 
who  are  coming  to  nought:  but  we  speak 
God's  wisdom  in  a  mystery,  even  the  wis- 
dom that  hath  been  hidden,  which  God  fore- 
ordained before  the  worlds  unto  our  glory: 
which  none  of  the  rulers  of  this  world  hath 
known:  for  had  they  known  it,  they  would 
not  have  crucified  the  Lord  of  glory." 

Holy  Son  of  God,  thou  didst  come  forth 
from  the  Father;  thou  didst  humble  thyself 
to  be  born  of  a  virgin.  Thou  didst  draw  to 
thy  manger  the  sages  of  the  East,  and,  when 
their  eyes  beheld  thee,  their  hearts  rejoiced; 
they  poured  their  treasures  before  thee. 
Such  as  we  have.  Lord  Jesus,  we  bring  to 
thee.  Thou  hast  made  our  darkness  light, 
our  discords  harmony,  and  our  weakness 
strength.  Give  us  perseverance  to  follow 
the  star  into  the  heavenly  Bethlehem,  where 
we  shall  behold  thee,  not  in  infant  weakness 
in  a  manger,  but  in  eternal  glory  on  thy 
throne. 

23 


II 

HEROD:  HATRED  GONE  MAD 

(Matt.  2:3,4,  7,  8,  16.) 

TI/'ICKEDNESS  always  fights  back;  it 
*^  advances  under  the  cover  of  night 
with  wool-shod  feet  and  answers  with  a  club 
what  it  can  not  with  argument.  Unable  to 
locate  the  exact  infant  to  whom  the  prophet 
referred,  Herod  ordered  a  wholesale  slaugh- 
ter, hoping  thus  to  catch  this  young  Prince, 
"born  King  of  the  Jews."  Christ  means 
different  things  to  different  men:  while  the 
Wise-men  "rejoiced  with  exceeding  great 
joy,"  Herod  was  troubled,  and  "all  Jerusalem 
with  him."  Herod's  conscience  was  not  dead, 
neither  was  he  unmindful  of  his  past-— "a 
reign  almost  unparalleled  for  reckless  cruelty 
and  bloodshed."  The  misdeeds  of  his  life 
came  up  more  vividly  than  the  ghosts  of  the 
dead,  but  he  was 

"in  blood 
Steeped  so  far,  that,  should  I  wade  no  more, 
Returning  were  as  tedious  as  to  go  o'er." 
24 


HEROD:  HATRED  GONE  MAD 

I 

It  would  be  a  mistake  to  say  that  Herod 
was  not  religious — at  times.  When  wicked 
men  scent  trouble  they  straightway  become 
pious.  Herod  did  not  hesitate  to  mask 
himself  in  the  garb  of  a  saint  when  it  was 
necessary.  He  knew  that  somewhere  in  his 
own  dominions  was  a  child  whom  the 
travelers  from  beyond  the  desert  had 
saluted  as  **King  of  the  Jews" — ominous 
words!  But  where  this  young  King  was, 
or  how  strong  his  following,  Herod  knew 
not.  He  knew  the  Jews  openly  hoped  for 
a  Messiah  who  would  break  the  Roman 
yoke;  perhaps  this  was  he.  So  it  were 
better  for  the  Idumean  to  dissemble  until 
he  knew  his  ground.  If  this  young  Prince 
reached  maturity,  who  could  stand  against 
him?  Therefore,  find  the  nest  and  harrow 
it. 

It  IS  one  thing  to  secure  a  throne;  it  Is 
quite  something  else  to  hold  it.  Not  every 
soldier  is  an  Alfred  the  Great  or  a  George 
Washington.  Statesmanship  and  mlHtary 
prowess  do  not  always  reside  in  the  same 
heart.  Herod  possessed  both — and  more. 
He  had  the,  military  genius  of  Sclpio  and 

25 


JESUS    CHRIST    IN    HUMAN    EXPERIENCE 

the  aestheticism  of  Pericles,  the  strategy  of 
Trajan  and  the  devilishness  of  de  Medici; 
he  purred  Hke  a  kitten,  but  he  struck  like 
a  lion.  Opposition  only  fed  his  fury,  but 
he  held  his  cyclonic  temper  in  leash  until 
the  right  moment;  then  he  made  terrible 
history.  A  few  human  monsters  have 
walked  across  the  pages  of  Time — Nero, 
Caligula,  Borgia,  Herod.  Yet  withal  Herod 
had  a  conscience,  and  it  was  at  work. 

"My  conscience  hath  a  thousand  tongues, 
And  every  tongue  brings  in  a  several  tale. 
And  every  tale  condemns  me  for  a  villain. 
Perjury,  perjury  in  the  high'st  degree ; 
Murder,  stern  murder,  in  the  direst  degree. 
Throng  the  bar,  crying  all,  'Guilty!  Guilty!' 
I  shall  despair.    There  is  no  creature  loves  me; 
And  if  I  die,  no  soul  will  pity  me; 
Nay,  wherefore  should  they,  since  that  I  myself 
Find  in  myself  no  pity  to  myself? 
Methought  the  souls  of  all  that  I  had  murdered 
Came  to  my  tent  and  every  one  did  threat 
To-morrow's  vengeance  on  the  head  of  Richard." 

In  the  extension  of  the  Kingdom  of  God 
Jesus  pronounced  a  blessing  on  those  who 
made  their  homes  secondary  to  the  work 
of  the  Church,  which  is  the  work  of  hu- 
manity. Men  can  not  give  their  lives  to 
the  gospel  ministry  and  expect  to  become 
rich    In    this    world's    goods;    but   he    who 

26 


HEROD:  HATRED  GONE  MAD 

forsakes  them  "for  my  sake  and  the  king- 
dom's shall  have  them  a  thousand-fold  even 
in  this  life."  True,  the  title  may  not  be 
in  his  name,  but  they  are  his  to  enjoy,  never- 
theless; what  more  is  to  be  desired?  But 
to  Herod  there  was  but  one  person — him- 
self. He  was  above  home,  religion  and 
country.  For  himself  he  did  not  hesitate 
to  sacrifice  any  or  all  of  these.  Herod  the 
Great!  If  he  expected  success  in  his  search 
for  the  newly  born  King,  then,  under  the 
guise  of  holiness  and  piety  and. deep  relig- 
ious zeal,  he  would  seek  those  who  were 
expecting  Him.  O  scribe,  the  king  com- 
mands: "Where  Is  the  Christ  to  be  born?'* 
It  Is  an  easy  thing  In  all  ages  to  command 
interpretation  of  Scripture — or  buy  It. 
There  are  plenty  of  Balaams  who  are  will- 
ing to  curse  Israel  for  a  price.  Men  who 
are  murdering  babies  with  soothing  syrups 
and  child  labor  should  first  call  together 
the  "chief  priests  and  scribes."  Executives 
who  use  state  offices  for  personal  aggran- 
dizement should  first  "see  what  the  scrip- 
tures say."  If  men  He,  steal  and  murder, 
let  them  at  least  do  it  orthodoxly;  see 
"what  Is  written  through  the  prophet." 
There   are  plenty  of  Itching  palms   which 

27 


JESUS    CHRIST    IN    HUMAN    EXPERIENCE 

will  interpret  smoothly  even  for  the  saloon- 
ist  and  the  white-slaver.  When  the  devil 
and  all  Jerusalem,  are  troubled,  let  them 
dangle  a  fat  salary  or  a  bishopric  before 
the  ^'priests  and  scribes,"  and  any  interpre- 
tation will  be  forthcoming.  Men  have  seen 
wonderful  things  in  the  Scriptures  when 
they  looked  at  the  sacred  writings  through 
the  promise  of  much  gold — sins  remitted, 
purgatory  depopulated;  aye,  infallibility 
itself ! 

II 

Having  secured  information  from  the 
"priests  and  scribes,"  Herod  turned  to  the 
Wise-men  who  had  actually  seen  the  star 
and  who  had  made  the  long  journey  in 
search  of  the  young  Child.  In  this  he  still 
retains  his  "piety."  To  these  Wise-men 
who  came  from  a  far-off  kingdom  he  not 
only  granted  a  private  audience,  but  he  sent 
for  them  and  received  them  "privily."  No 
imperial  garments  on  his  person,  no  jeweled 
crown,  no  throne,  no  pomp  and  splendor  of 
state  about  him;  simply  a  man  talking  to 
men.  The  only  way  to  get  confidences  was 
to  invite  them,  to  seem  to  place  himself 
in  the   same  mental   and   spiritual   attitude 

28 


HEROD:  HATRED  GONE  MAD 

as  they.  We  can  almost  hear  the  pious 
cant  flowing  from  his  lips;  how  anxiously 
he  was  waiting  for  the  Messiah,  and  how 
he  longed  to  worship  him!  Would  they 
not  feel  obligated  to  a  king  who  had  treated 
them  thus,  and  they  from  a  strange  and 
distant  land? 

They  were  without  credentials  or  influ- 
ence, yet  they  had  on  their  lips  a  mystic 
name,  '*the  King  of  the  Jews,'*  and  there 
was  magic  in  that  name.  It  ^'troubled 
Herod"  and  "all  Jerusalem."  It  drew  the 
sages  from  the  distant  Orient;  it  opened 
the  starry  skies  for  the  heavenly  choir,  and 
their  song  was:  ''Glory  to  God  in* the  high- 
est, and  on  earth  peace,  good  will  among 
men."  That  name  is  open  sesame  to  palace 
and  hut  alike;  it  is  common  ground,  for  of 
what  and  whom  did  the  king  and  the  Wise- 
men  talk  if  not  of  Jesus?  And  they  dis- 
cussed him  with  earnest  care.  Here  both 
extremes  of  human  experience  touched  the 
Christ — passionate  devotion  and  diabolical 
hatred.  The  one  saw  in  him  hope,  the 
other  a  menace — a  menace  to  a  bloody  and 
selfish  throne,  hope  for  the  world  of  suffer- 
ing men. 

Herod  intended  to  use  them  as  tools: 

29 


JESUS    CHRIST    IN    HUMAN    EXPERIENCE 

*'Go  and  search  exactly  for  the  young 
child;  and  when  you  have  found  him,  bring 
me  word."  Exact  information!  Herod 
was  a  scientist.  He  gave  these  unknown 
men  a  special  commission;  he  made  them 
ministers  extraordinary.  Was  it  not  a  great 
honor  to  be  thus  designated?  But  what 
were  they  to  get?  The  empty  honor; 
nothing  more.  When  the  devil  would  use 
men  he  gives  them  the  semblance  of  power. 
Many  the  man  who  has  been  given  an 
office  that  his  good  name  might  be  used  in 
furthering  rascality  and  double-dealing.  He 
accepted  the  station  honestly  intending  to 
be  square  and  do  his  duty,  but  he  awakened 
to  find  his  hands  tied.  Wickedness  must 
have  the  face  and  garb  of  respectability, 
hence  it  often  seizes  upon  men  of  unblem- 
ished character  and  untarnished  name  and 
makes  tools  of  them.  Learn  to  analyze 
motives;  remember  Herod.  Sudden  con- 
version on  the  part  of  gamblers,  grafters, 
boodlers,  liars  and  professional  office- 
holders may  always  be  regarded  with  sus- 
picion. When  "all  Jerusalem"  came  to 
John  for  baptism,  he  demanded  "fruits 
meet  for  repentance";  and  we  are  justified 
in  putting  all  such  on  probation.     A  high- 

30 


HEROD!  HATRED  GONE  MAD 

sounding  title,  when  reduced  to  its  lowest 
terms,  may  be  very  empty  of  meaning.  It 
may  be  little  more  than  artistic  flattery,  a 
ruse  to  discover  the  cradle  of  the  new-born 
King. 

*'That  I  also  may  come  and  worship 
him."  A  slip  here  would  reveal  his  motives. 
When  he  deals  with  pious  men,  he  is 
pious;  that  is  diplomacy.  In  his  excessive 
*'piety"  he  longs  to  worship  Him,  as  the 
wolf  worships  the  lamb.  Never  did  the 
treachery  of  this  monster  stand  out  more 
vividly  than  when  he  sat  in  the  company 
of  these  sages  whose  pure  purposes  had 
been  so  frankly  spoken,  and  announced  his 
great  desire  to  "worship"  the  Babe  of 
Bethlehem.  If  villain  had  not  lost  much 
of  its  strength  by  long  association  with  the 
English  language,  we  would  thus  stigmatize 
him;  if  impostor  burned  and  blistered  the 
tongue,  we  might  venture  to  speak  it  of 
Herod;  if  we  could  pull  fiend  directly  out  of 
the  netherworld,  sputtering  w^ith  sulphur, 
we  would  brand  him  with  it;  If  devil  were 
not  an  ecclesiastical  term,  we  would  confer 
the  title  upon  this  Idumean  king,  for  his 
whole  portrait  Is  "palled  in  the  dunnest 
smoke  of  hell." 

31 


JESUS    CHRIST    IN    HUMAN    EXPERIENCE 

III 

"There  is  a  destiny  which  shapes  our  ends, 
Rough  hew  them  as  we  may." 

No  man  makes  much  headway  fighting 
against  the  Lord  and  Right.  He  did  not 
send  his  Son  into  the  world  to  fall  a  prey 
to  this  black  monster  before  his  work  was 
accomplished.  These  Wise-men  were  also 
godly  men;  they  returned  to  their  own 
country  by  another  way.  With  divine  In- 
sight they  penetrated  Herod's  murderous 
scheme  and  refused  to  be  participants  in 
It;  they  were  *Vise  men." 

Herod  fitly  represents  the  negative  ele- 
ment in  society.  It  Is  at  its  worst  when  In 
contact  with  the  best.  The  virtues  of 
Christ  and  Christianity  make  no  appeal  to 
it;  Instead,  they  arouse  the  sleeping  devil 
within  it.  It  was  the  "Herods"  who  con- 
ducted those  awful  persecutions  before  Con- 
stantine;  they  were  at  work  mightily  during 
the  Inquisition  and  the  Reformation. 
Herod  still  lives  In  modern  society  In  our 
unchristian  business  order,  commercialized 
vice  and  the  liquor  traffic;  In  the  exhausting 
drafts  upon  society  by  cigarettes,  fast 
living  and  the  devillshness  of  men  who  are 

32 


HEROD;  HATRED  GONE  MAD 

the  perverts  of  our  civilization.  We  are 
already  getting  a  race  of  undersized  men 
and  nervous  women.  He  is  ^'exceeding 
wroth,"  and  when  he  spares  not  his  own, 
how  can  we  expect  him  to  spare  the 
innocents  ? 

"A  voice  was  heard  in  Ramah, 
Weeping  and  great  mourning, 
Rachel  weeping  for  her  children; 
And  she  would  not  be  comforted,  because  they  are  not." 

All  this  to  destroy  the  Christ.  Yet  it 
is  true  his  doctrines  set  men  at  variance; 
they  break  homes;  they  bring  on  persecu- 
tions. Shall  we  therefore  refrain  from 
preaching  them?  Shall  we  interpret 
smoothly  and  tread  softly?  No;  ancient 
Israel  needed  the  fiery  preaching  of  its 
Isaiah  and  its  Amos,  and  Jerusalem  needed 
the  cyclonic  attack  of  John  the  Baptist.  It 
was  because  Jesus  laid  bare  the  shams  and 
hypocrisy  of  men  that  they  hated  him. 
Peter  and  John  defied  the  Sanhedrin;  Paul 
^'reasoned  of  righteousness,  temperance,  and 
judgment  to  come"  before  procurators  and 
kings  with  such  vividness  and  power  that 
they  were  *'terrified."  Offenses  must  come, 
but  woe  to  that  man  by  whom  they  come. 

Lord,  give  us  the  wisdom  of  the  Wise- 

C  S3 


JESUS    CHRIST    IN    HUMAN    EXPERIENCE 

men  who  returned  to  their  country  by  an- 
other way.  Forbid  that  we  should  be 
puffed  up  by  the  flattery  of  base  men, 
though  kings.  Give  us  courage  that  we 
falter  not,  that  we  may  seek  thy  glory, 
being  pure  and  undefiled.  May  our  lives 
be  spent  in  upholding  the  right,  protecting 
the  innocent,  in  propagating  the  truth,  and 
In  bringing  peace  and  goodwill  to  all  man- 
kind. 


34 


Ill 

MARY:  POETIC  MOTHERHOOD 

(Luke  1:27-29,  39-55.) 

TT  may  be  true  that  the  wealth  of  nations 
is  in  its  manhood,  but  every  man  who 
has  lifted  the  world  a  notch  higher  has  a 
long  line  of  splendid  ancestry  culminating 
in  some  Cornelia,  some  Hannah,  some 
Nancy  Hanks.  Out  of  the  unknown  Pales- 
tinian town  of  Nazareth  came  a  young 
woman  with  such  rare  graces,  such  remark- 
able talents  and  such  extraordinary  ability 
that,  of  all  earth's  mothers,  she  is  easily 
the  queen.  To  Joseph,  in  that  simple  Gali- 
lean home,  the  angel  announced:  "She  shall 
bear  a  son,  and  thou  shalt  call  his  name 
JESUS."  The  Saviour  of  the  world! 
Obscure?  Yes,  if  by  poverty  is  meant 
obscurity.  Mary  and  Joseph  have  fre- 
quently been  called  peasants,  but  they  really 
had  the  blood  of  kings  in  their  veins;  they 
were  of  the  royal  line  of  David.  Mary 
was  a  kinswoman  of  Elisabeth,  who  was  of 
35 


JESUS    CHRIST    IN    HUMAN    EXPERIENCE 

the  family  of  Aaron — priestly.  If  ever  a 
woman  belonged  to  the  aristocracy,  it  was 
Mary;  not  to  the  "Four  Hundred,"  which 
too  often  means  wealth  without  character. 
She   had  the   highest  wealth — womanhood. 

Singularly  enough,  many  of  the  world's 
greatest  characters  have  come  from  homes 
which  knew  the  meaning  of  poverty;  Spen- 
ser, Johnson  and  Goldsmith  all  fought  the 
hard  battles  against  want.  The  homes  of 
Lincoln,  Grant  and  Garfield  knew  nothing 
of  luxury  and  little  of  comfort.  But  the 
lack  of  worldly  goods  did  not  Impoverish 
the  latent  ability  of  the  stock. 

In  addition  to  being  devout,  Mary  was 
possessed  of  a  remarkable  poetic  tempera- 
ment, together  with  a  rare  ability  to  "keep" 
and  "ponder." 


Great  revelations  are  made  to  open 
hearts,  because  beaten  ground  is  closed 
ground;  the  seed  can  not  get  hold.  Mary 
was  a  devout  woman  long  before  the  angel 
came  saying:  "Hail,  thou  that  art  highly 
favored,  the  Lord  is  with  thee."  God's 
highest  honor  is  motherhood. 

Are  we  not  in  danger  of  losing — have 

36 


MARY;   POETIC   MOTHERHOOD 

we  not  already  in  some  measure  lost — the 
spirit  of  devotion  which  characterized  those 
great  mothers  in  Israel?  Many  of  our 
twentieth-century  mothers  are  in  danger  of 
having  their  minds  closed  to  the  "things" 
which  "troubled"  the  heart  of  Mary.  In 
some  circles  (and  too  frequently  these  cir- 
cles overlap  the  church  circles)  it  is  of 
more  import  to  know  frocks  and  fancy 
dances  than  the  genesis  of  character  and 
true  womanhood.  If  the  Redeemer  were 
to  be  born  in  this  good  year  of  our  Lord, 
would  the  "Annunciation"  be  made  to  the 
average  young  woman  of  twenty?  It  is 
the  riilcj  and  not  the  exception,  of  which 
I  speak.  Hearts  must  be  made  ready 
before  the  angels  will  visit  them. 

Devotion  is  a  matter  of  growth;  it  is 
not  to  be  applied  like  a  coat  of  paint, 
neither,  like  boards  and  shingles,  nailed  on. 
It  can  not  be  acquired  in  an  evening's  study. 
If  a  man  is  not  devout  on  Wednesday,  he 
will  not  be  on  Sunday.  Devotion  is  the 
silver  thread  on  which  are  strung  the 
twenty-four  hours  of  the  day.  The  soul 
grows  "into  the  measure  of  the  fulness  of 
the  stature  of  Christ."  Devotion  is  not 
in  pallid  cheeks  and  upturned  eye;  neither 

37 


JESUS    CHRIST    IN    HUMAN    EXPERIENCE 

is  it  in  pious  cant  or  intonated  prayer.  It 
is  stirring  the  depths  of  the  soul;  it  is  the 
peaceful  consciousness  that  somewhere  down 
in  the  depths  the  heart  is  anchored  to  the 
Rock  of  Ages. 

Mary  was  a  devoted  woman,  and  with- 
out devotion  no  woman  can  become  a  true 
mother.  She  can  not  do  her  duty  by  her 
offspring  unless  she  has  that  beautiful  con- 
fidence which  Mary  sets  forth  so  magnifi- 
cently in  her  song.  Mothers  are  the  leaders 
of  the  world;  they  put  themselves  literally 
into  their  children — hopes,  fears,  passions. 
It  is  not  irreverent  to  say  that  Mary  was 
responsible  for  the  human  nature  of  our 
Lord;  she  imparted  to  him  the  strength  of 
her  splendid  womanhood.  In  common  with 
all  patriotic  Jews,  she  was  looking  for  the 
"consolation  of  Israel";  she  was  living  in 
the  hope  of  a  larger  and  more  glorious 
nation;  she  thought  big  thoughts.  She 
loved  with  all  the  fervency  of  an  Oriental, 
and  yet  the  same  maternal  fire  burns  in  the 
heart  of  every  true  woman.  Pray  God 
that  American  motherhood  be  more  intro- 
spective; that  their  children  become  God's 
tilled  land,  God's  husbandry. 


38 


MARY:   POETIC   MOTHERHOOD 

II 

A  "poet"  Is  a  performer,  a  maker,  a 
doer.  Rhymed  prose  is  not  poetry.  Poetry 
eludes  definition  as  life  eludes  discovery. 
It  appears  in  the  delicate  lines  of  Tennyson 
and  the  rugged  lines  of  Browning.  When 
we  read  at  twilight  the  weird  rhythm  and 
dirge-like  sequences  of  Poe,  we  are  con- 
scious of  the  magnetic  spell  of  his  genius. 
The  stately  iambics  of  John  Milton  are 
like  the  blowing  of  a  full-toned  organ  tuned 
to  a  great  symphony.  Again,  the  Shake- 
spearean blank  verse  introduces  another 
quality  which  is  quite  as  real  as  the  metric 
strength  of  Longfellow.  Yet  In  one  thing 
all  agree:  To  produce  real  poetry,  the  soul 
must  be  on  fire.  Great  poems  like  Tenny- 
son's "Gleam"  and  Browning's  "Apt  Vog- 
ler"  are  inspirations,  the  crystallizations  of 
great  experiences.  Poets  are  seers;  they 
are  prophets. 

"Poets  are  the  trumpets  which  sing  to  battle ; 
Poets  are  the  unacknowledged  legislators  of  the  world." 

Whoever  said,  "Let  me  write  the  songs 
of  a  nation  and  I  care  not  who  writes  its 
laws,"  understood  the  philosophy  of  nation- 
al  development.      Burns   did   a   wonderful 

39 


JESUS    CHRIST    IN    HUMAN    EXPERIENCE 

thing  for  Scotland  when  he  rewrote  her 
songs. 

But  Mary's  song  has  neither  meter  nor 
rhyme;  the  trochee,  dactyl  or  the  iambus 
is  not  there.  It  is  not  possessed  of  the 
measured  syllable,  but  it  has  a  majestic 
rhythm  of  which  the  reader  is  at  once  con- 
scious. The  glcry  of  God  reflects  from 
it;  the  spirit  of  the  Crusades  inspires  it; 
the  trumpets  of  revolution  ring  through  it; 
the  shout  of  the  conqueror  echoes  in  it.  It 
is  the  Magna  Charta  of  the  oppressed;  it 
Is  the  cry  from  the  mountain-top  proclaim- 
ing the  dawn  of  the  Kingdom,  when  those  of 
low  degree  shall  be  exalted  and  the  hungry 
filled  with  good  things.  It  is  the  prophetic 
vision  of  the  end  of  the  tyrant,  the  down- 
fall of  the  proud  and  the  coming  of  the 
brotherhood  of  all  mankind.  If  any  man 
thinks  of  the  mother  of  our  Lord  as  a 
bloodless  saint  who  spent  her  hours  count- 
ing a  rosary  and  mumbling  meaningless 
prayers,  let  him  study  these  nine  verses  of 
her  song;  here  is  fire,  revolution,  onslaught, 
victory ! 

Motherhood  Is  always  poetic.  True, 
not  every  woman  Is  possessed  of  Mary's 
temperament;   yet   does   not   every  mother 

40 


MARY:   POETIC   MOTHERHOOD 

feel  the  poetic  thrill  when  her  babe  lies 
on  her  breast  for  the  first  time?  Does  she 
not  dream  when  she  looks  into  the  face 
of  her  infant  son?  In  that  faint  cry  she 
hears  the  strong  voice  of  command;  in  the 
little  arm  that  helplessly  waves  in  the  air 
she  sees  a  strong  arm  which  will  battle  for 
the  right.  In  her  own  way  she  dreams  out 
his  future,  not  once  counting  herself,  save 
as  she  contributes  to  his  success,  and  no 
mother  sees  her  son  a  failure.  Every  emo- 
tion that  plays  through  his  heart  is  reacted 
in  hers.  She  has  no  life  but  his;  for  her 
It  Is  sufficient  that  she  Is  his  mother.  Here 
Is  rhythm  that  surpasses  Pope  or  Byron  or 
Shakespeare. 

Ill 

Motherhood  Is  a  wonderful  experience. 
What  does  it  mean?  The  Wise-men 
poured  out  their  treasures  and  departed; 
the  song  of  the  angels  died  away,  and  the 
shepherds  returned  to  their  flocks,  and  yet 
no  word  escaped  the  lips  of  Mary.  "She 
kept  these  sayings,  pondering  them  In  her 
heart.''  It  was  no  time  for  curious  dis- 
cussion, but  rather  for  profound  meditation. 

Those  three  months   Mary  and  Ellsa- 

41 


JESUS    CHRIST    IN    HUMAN    EXPERIENCE 

beth  were  alone  in  the  hill-country  of  Judah 
were  days  of  holy  preparation  for  the 
greatest  event  in  the  life  of  a  woman. 
Prenatal  influence?  The  barren  Elisabeth 
gave  the  world  John  the  Baptist,  and  the 
Virgin  Mary  gave  the  earth  its  Redeemer. 
It  is  no  light  thing  to  send  a  soul  voyaging 
toward  eternity,  hence  every  mother  owes 
it  to  her  unborn  child  to  be  prayerful  and 
meditative,  to  hear  the  best,  read  the  best, 
think  the  best.  Such  motherhood  can  not 
be  a  misfortune.  Did  Mary  lament  the 
coming  of  her  child?  Not  if  her  song 
reflects  her  heart. 

The  women  who  bless  mankind  are  not 
the  ones  who  read  what  they  never  wrote, 
or  pass  out  a  page  of  Goethe  or  Bergson 
as  their  own,  but  rather  the  ones  who  take 
their  highest  function  seriously,  who  believe 
it  to  be  a  greater  privilege  to  rear  strong 
children  than  to  tinker  with  the  municipal 
machinery.  The  women  of  America  have 
done  some  splendid  things  for  the  men,  but 
some  have  done  so  at  tremendous  cost. 
The  call  is  for  women  who  **keep"  and 
"ponder";  it  is  their  sons  who  stir  the 
world.  Elisabeth  was  of  priestly  lineage; 
she  proved  it  by  her  son.     Mary  was  of 

42 


MARY:    POETIC   MOTHERHOOD 

royal  blood;  she  proved  it  by  her  offspring. 
Let  the  crown  of  honor  be  given  to  the 
women  who  rear  strong-bodied,  healthy- 
minded  children.  It  is  in  the  mother's 
heart  that  Jesus  Christ  touches  human 
experience  most  profoundly. 

It  is  a  wonderful  thing  to  be  a  mother: 
to  feel  thQ  strange  coming  of  life ;  to  know 
that  brain  and  muscle  are  somehow,  by 
God's  alchemy,  being  organized  into  a 
human  soul,  with  thoughts,  feelings  and 
love;  to  know  that  beneath  her  heart  may 
be  the  music  of  the  world,  the  destiny  of 
the  nation,  the  voice  of  an  evangel;  strength 
growing  out  of  weakness,  light  flashing 
from  darkness;  to  know  that  God  is  in 
partnership  with  her,  giving  mind  and  life 
while  she  gives  blood  and  nourishment; 
and  so  the  silent,  creative  process  goes  on 
until  men  say:  "A  child  hath  been  born." 
Oh,  it  is  a  wonderful  thing  to  be  a  mother! 

Blessed  Father,  we  thank  thee  for  the 
dignity  thou  gavest  man  when  thy  Son  was 
"born  of  a  woman,"  and  for  the  splendid 
example  of  true  motherhood  Mary  of 
Nazareth  has  given  the  world.  We  are 
deeply  grateful  for  the  tender  hands  that 
ministered   to   us   when   we   were   helpless 

43 


JESUS    CHRIST    IN    HUMAN    EXPERIENCE 

babes;  we  can  not  repay  them  for  that 
love  that  passeth  male  understanding,  for 
the  hours  of  anxiety,  for  that  journey  down 
to  the  gates  of  death — for  us.  God  bless 
the  mothers  of  the  world  who  to-day  watch 
by  the  cradles  of  their  infant  children.  In 
this  splendid  mother-love  is  reflected  the 

".    .    .    love  that  wilt  not  let  me  go, 
I  yield  my  weary  soul  to  Thee; 
I  give  Thee  back  the  life  I  owe. 
That  in  thine  ocean  depths  its  flow 
May  richer,  fuller  be." 


44 


IV 

ZACHARIAS:  THE  FRUITAGE  OF 
PATIENCE 

(Luke   i:  5-25,   57-80.) 

"Q  ELIGION  is  the  common  instinct  of 
'*'  the  race.  There  is  no  tribe,  however 
degenerate,  without  it;  there  is  no  nation, 
however  civiHzed,  that  does  not  possess  it. 
Christianity  is  a  religion  of  revelation,  of 
purpose.  The  Spirit  of  God  inspired  it; 
white-haired  men  figure  in  it,  God-crowned 
men.  Luke  introduces  his  readers  to  such 
a  man,  "a  certain  priest  named  Zacharias." 
He  is  one  of  those  rare  spirits  whose  lives 
have  enriched  the  world.  What  a  wealth 
of  men  there  are  in  unknown  places !  For 
every  crisis  God  has  a  man  ready.  Zach- 
arias was  "righteous  before  God,  walking 
in  all  the  commandments  of  the  Lord 
blameless."     What  a  soul  shines  here! 

I 

This  aged  priest,  like  Abraham,  repre- 
sents the  fruitage  of  patience.     There  were 
45 


JESUS    CHRIST    IN    HUMAN    EXPERIENCE 

many  of  the  priests  who  lived  in  Jericho 
when  not  serving  at  the  Temple,  but  there 
were  a  few  who  scattered  out  over  the 
country  adjacent  to  Jerusalem.  Among 
these  few  was  Zacharias,  who  lived  to  the 
south  of  Jerusalem  among  its  "rounded 
hills"  and  "broad  valleys."  Such  a  place 
suited  him  far  better  than  the  crowded  life 
of  Jericho,  for  he  was  a  man  of  medita- 
tion. The  hills  spoke  to  him  of  the  spiritual 
promises  to  Abraham,  and  in  their  silent 
valleys  his  prophetic  eye  caught  the  silvery 
sheen  of  the  advancing  hosts  of  the  army  of 
the  Lord.  What  could  the  city  possess  for 
a  man  like  Zacharias,  whose  soul  ungirded 
itself  in  nature's  temple — a  soul  that  saw 
in  every  blade  of  grass  a  poem;  in  the  gray 
faces  of  the  limestone  rocks,  oratorios,  and 
to  whose  ears  the  gurgle  of  the  springs  and 
the  ripple  of  the  stream  were  music? 

Possibly  he  had  never  missed  making 
the  regular  visit  to  Jerusalem  when  the 
"course  of  Abijah"  ministered  In  the  holy 
service.  Long  and  faithfully  he  had  at- 
tended his  sacred  duty;  years  had  laid  their 
burden  upon  his  venerable  shoulders;  his 
head  and  beard  had  blossomed  white, 
emblematic  of  his  pure  and  devoted  heart. 

46 


THE  FRUITAGE  OF  PATIENCE 

But  withal  there  was  a  great  sadness 
in  his  life;  he  had  no  child.  Winter  and 
summer,  springtime  and  autumn,  had  passed 
over  his  simple  home  possibly  forty  times, 
yet  its  quiet  had  never  been  broken  by  a 
baby's  cry.  In  the  Genesis  record  there  is 
much  of  Abraham's  importunate  pleading 
for  a  son;  in  fact,  Jehovah  had  made  the 
promise  contingent  upon  an  heir;  but  there  is 
nothing  in  the  record  that  reveals  the  inner 
longings  of  this  faithful  priest — no  rebellion 
in  his  heart,  no  complaint  on  his  lips;  he 
had  learned  to  serve  and  wait.  "For  many 
years  this  must  have  been  the  burden  of 
Zacharias'  prayer;  the  burden  of  reproach 
which  Elisabeth  seemed  to  carry  with  her. 
They  waited  together  these  many  years,  till 
the  evening  of  life,  and  the  flower  of  hope 
had  closed  its  fragrant  cup;  and  still  the 
two  sat  together  in  the  twilight,  content  to 
wait  in  loneliness,  till  the  night  would  close 
around  them." 

The  word  of  the  child  is  "now."  "To- 
morrow" is  an  eternity.  If  you  say,  "My 
child,  you  can  not  go  until  this  afternoon," 
the  sobbing  answer  is,  "I  want  to  go  now.** 
And  we  are  all  children;  we  want  the  ful- 
fillment of  our  desires  now^  forgetting  that 

47 


JESUS    CHRIST    IN    HUMAN    EXPERIENCE 

when  "patience  has  her  perfect  work"  she 
performs  a  ripening  service  for  the  soul 
like  the  kiss  of  the  autumn  sun  upon  the 
apple's  cheek.  All  young  Christians, 
whether  young  in  experience  or  in  years,  are 
likely  to  be  green  and  crude,  and,  if  every 
desire  were  instantly  gratified,  would  always 
remain  so.  It  is  the  peaceful  waiting  in 
the  hill-country  that  glorifies  life;  it  is  that 
faithful  waiting  for  to-morrow  that  burns 
out  the  dross.  Under  its  refining  touch 
Imperfections  fade  away,  haste  disappears, 
the  glow  of  Christ's  spirit  transfigures  the 
soul,  and  the  face  shines  with  the  glory  of 
the  Lord. 

No  man  ever  accomplished  much  in  this 
world  unless  he  loved  his  job,  and  no  job 
is  worth  having  unless  It  can  be  loved.  The 
office  of  priest  was  the  highest  office  In 
Israel;  the  high  priest  was  higher  than  the 
king.  The  priestly  office  began  when  the 
nation  began,  and  continued  as  long  as 
Israel  had  national  life.  Ever  since  he  had 
been  of  legal  age,  Zacharlas  had  performed 
some  function  of  the  priestly  office.  It  was 
a  part  of  his  duties;  It  was  a  part  of  him. 
Says  Dr.  Edershelm :  -"Only  once  In  a  life- 
time might  a  priest  enjoy  the  privilege  of 

48 


THE  FRUITAGE  OF  PATIENCE 

offering  incense,  and  then  only  by  lot. 
Henceforth  he  was  called  rich,  and  must 
leave  his  brethren  the  hope  of  the  distinc- 
tion that  had  been  granted  to  him.'^  During 
all  those  years  of  faithful  service  Zacharias 
had  never  been  honored  with  the  office  of 
incensing. 

But  the  honor  finally  came — came  when 
he  did  not  expect  it.  After  he  had  spread 
the  incense  over  the  glowing  coals,  he 
stepped  back  to  bow  in  worship,  when  he 
beheld,  on  the  right  side  of  the  altar,  an 
angelic  figure.  As  angels  appeared  either 
to  bless  or  to  punish,  the  heart  of  the 
priest  was  troubled  lest  he  had  committed 
an  act  of  blasphemy.  Also,  he  knew  that 
the  people  were  waiting  on  the  outside  for 
his  blessing  and  benediction.  Small  wonder 
fear  fell  upon  him. 

What  a  vision  is  here!  Upon  this  very 
spot  twenty-five  hundred  years  before,  on 
an  altar  of  rough  stones,  Abraham,  the 
father  of  the  race,  had  laid  his  son  as  a 
sacrifice,  but  when  he  did  so  he  saw  the 
day  of  Christ  and  rejoiced.  When  men 
stand  at  the  altar  the  present  dissolves,  the 
messengers  of  the  Lord  appear,  and  the 
worshiper  enjoys  the  blessing  of  Heaven. 

4  49 


JESUS    CHRIST    IN    HUMAN    EXPERIENCE 

Why  does  Christian  work  move  slowly? 
Because  of  stony  hearts.  We  are  so  far 
from  the  altar  that  no  incense  kindles,  no 
angel  appears,  and  there  are  no  troubled 
hearts  like  Zacharias  and  Elisabeth.  "Draw 
nigh  unto  me,  and  I  will  draw  nigh  unto 
you,'*  was  Jehovah's  plea  with  Israel. 
There  is  a  profound  pathos  in  Christ's 
pleading:  *'0  Jerusalem,  .  .  .  how  oft 
would  I  .  .  .  ,  but  ye  would  not!"  *'Come 
unto  me,  ye  weary  and  burdened,  and  rest." 
Men  will  never  find  much  in  their 
Christian  service  until  they  are  willing  to 
go  to  the  inner  sanctuary,  spread  the  in- 
cense, and  spend  time  in  watching  it  kindle. 
Then  our  hearts  will  reach  up  to  God,  and 
human  experience  will  be  transformed  by 
his  messengers.  The  presence  of  this  an- 
gelic messenger  troubled  this  aged  priest. 
In  the  days  of  Eli  it  is  said:  "There  was 
no  open  vision."  The  tragedy  of  this 
century  is  that  men  are  in  danger  of  losing 
their  power  to  see  the  things  of  God.  Such 
a  condition  ought  to  trouble  them  and  drive 
them  into  the  incense-chamber.  Lack  of 
vision  wrought  anarchy  in  Israel;  will  it  do 
less  for  us? 


50 


THE  FRUITAGE  OF  PATIENCE 

II 

No  great  movement  is  possible  without 
sponsors.  There  would  never  have  been 
a  Reformation  without  Luther,  Calvin  and 
Huss.  There  would  never  have  been  an 
American  Revolution  without  Washington, 
Jefferson  and  Henry.  When  a  great  need 
obtains,  great  minds  have  to  meet  it;  where 
a  great  wrong  exists,  great  minds  have  to 
redress  it.  There  would  never  have  been 
a  Christian  Church  without  the  great  men 
who  came  before  John  and  Jesus,  than 
whom  there  were  none  greater  than 
Zacharias. 

Great  men,  like  great  movements,  must 
have  great  parents.  That  was  a  simple 
home  in  southern  Palestine.  It  had  none 
of  the  luxuries  of  Jerusalem,  Capernaum  or 
Antioch,  but  it  was  a  priesfs  home  in 
which  presided  one  of  the  daughters  of 
Aaron;  the  father  and  mother  "righteous 
before  God  .  .  .  and  blameless."  Clean 
living  and  high  thinking;  simplicity  of  home 
and  godliness  of  life;  peaceful  hills  and 
green  pastures;  reverence  for  God  and  his 
word — these  are  some  of  the  elements  which 
produce  great  men.     Here  was  where  John 

51 


JESUS    CHRIST    IN    HUMAN    EXPERIENCE 

the  Baptist  was  born.  From  this  sturdy 
parentage  he  inherited  his  strength  of  mind 
and  body,  strength  that  made  him  easily 
the  greatest  preacher  since  the  days  of 
Elijah.  Knowing  his  parentage,  we  are  not 
surprised  at  his  fearlessness  when  he  called 
the  sensual,  ease-loving,  hypocritical  aristoc- 
racy of  Jerusalem  a  "generation  of  vipers," 
or  when  he  was  bold  enough  to  rebuke  the 
licentious  Antipas  for  his  adulterous  mar- 
riage and  "for  all  the  evil  things  which 
Herod  had  done."  Could  a  son  of  such 
parentage  do  otherwise?  When  he  preached 
with  such  fire  and  abandon  In  the  Jordan 
valley,  It  was  the  blood  of  generations  of 
priests  crying  against  the  shameful  cor- 
ruptions of  that  age — every  age.  He  was 
fulfilling  the  angel's  prophecy  to  Zacharlas: 
"He  shall  go  before  his  face  In  the  spirit 
and  power  of  Elijah  ...  to  make  ready 
for  the  Lord  a  people  prepared  for  him." 
God  uses  men  who  are  prepared.  There 
were  about  fifty  priests  on  duty  every  day, 
but,  out  of  all  the  twenty-four  courses, 
Zacharlas  Is  the  only  one  mentioned.  Some 
men  go  about  the  Christian  ministry  most 
perfunctorily.  With  them  It  Is  a  business, 
a  duty,  a  living.     Their  hearts  never  kindle 

52 


THE  FRUITAGE  OF  PATIENCE 

and  they  never  see  the  angel  at  the  altar. 
Is  not  the  sermon  worthy  of  "terrible  toil," 
of  "agonizing  in  the  study,"  before  it  is 
offered  to  the  people?  The  unpardonable 
sin  of  much  of  the  modern  preaching  is 
bringing  two  grains  of  wheat  m  the  two 
bushels  of  chaff.  Will  God  honor  such 
service?  Will  men  have  respect  thereto? 
The  Kingdom  must  have  men  who  are 
cumulative,  who  stand  foursquare ;  men  who 
are  Boanerges  ("sons  of  thunder")  ;  men 
who  can  use  their  power  against  wrong. 
Christ's  Kingdom  must  have  men  of  iron 
and  hickory,  men  of  self-control  and  con- 
centration. Thank  God  there  are  such  men, 
thousands  of  them. 

In  the  construction  of  concrete-work, 
there  is  a  period  when  the  mass  is  soft  and 
pliable  and  a  baby's  finger  makes  an  Impres- 
sion. It  will  take  any  form,  any  mold. 
But  It  soon  hardens  and  resists  the  heavy 
blows  of  the  hammer.  Opportunities  are 
the  molding  fingers  which  shape  our  des- 
tiny; they  are  given  for  a  purpose,  for 
some  day — In  an  Instant  It  may  be — great 
burdens  and  tremendous  stress  will  be 
placed  upon  us  and  action  demanded.  When 
that  crucial  and  decisive  hour  comes,  will 

53 


JESUS    CHRIST    IN    HUMAN    EXPERIENCE 

we  have  a  product,  or  simply  a  hardened 
mass  of  worthless  material?  What  did  our 
Master  mean  by  the  parable  of  the  talents, 
if  not  something  of  this  kind?  Use  what 
the  Lord  has  given  you  against  the  day  of 
reckoning.  Men  will  never  become  great 
servants  by  proxy.  Serve  In  your  humble 
place,  but  serve  so  well  that  when  the  Lord 
comes  he  will  find  you  ready. 

Ill 

Turn  for  a  moment  to  the  hymn  of  this 
aged  priest.  Here,  again,  is  the  character- 
istic poetry  of  the  bards  of  Israel,  without 
meter,  without  rhyme,  yet  filled  with  pas- 
sion. Zacharias  was  lifted  out  of  his  present 
and  exulted  in  the  redemption  of  his  people. 
His  tongue,  long  dumb,  broke  forth  with: 
"Blessed  be  the  Lord,  the  God  of  Israel." 
For  a  millennium  the  descendants  of  Jacob 
had  been  waiting  for  the  "oath  which  he 
sware  unto  Abraham  our  father  that  we 
.  .  .  should  serve  him  without  fear,"  and 
now  the  time  was  ripe,  and  the  fruitage  was 
about  to  fall.  "The  first  evidence  of  his 
dumbness  was  that  his  tongue  refused  to 
speak  the  benediction  to  the  people;  the 
first  evidence   of   his   restored  power  was 

54 


THE  FRUITAGE  OF  PATIENCE 

that  he  spoke  the  benediction  of  God  in  a 
rapturous  burst  of  praise  and  thanksgiving.*' 
It  is  as  if  he  stood  before  a  splendid 
harp  and  laid  his  hands  gently  on  its  simple 
chords;  then,  coupling  a  poet's  imagination 
and  inspiration  with  the  wizardry  of  an 
artist's  fingers,  he  mounts  upward,  wire 
singing  to  wire,  chord  answering  chord, 
until  the  whole  gamut  thrills  and  vibratea 
with  the  hallelujah  in  his  rejoicing  heart 
The  most  sublime  heights  of  the  soul  are 
his,  likewise  the  resounding  depths  o{ 
boundless  love ;  until  at  last  man  and  instru- 
ment are  one  and  cry  out  in  one  triumphant 
hosanna : 

"Because  of  the  tender  mercy  of  our  God, 
Whereby  the  dayspring  from  on  high  shall  visit  us, 
To  shine  upon  them  that  sit  in  darkness  and  in  the 

shadow  of  death; 
To  guide  our  feet  in  the  way  of  peace." 

O  thou  God  of  Zacharias,  when  the 
fulfillment  of  our  cherished  hopes  seems 
impossible,  and  the  "darkness  that  is 
deeper'*  gathers  round  our  whitened  heads, 
grant  us  the  grace  of  this  aged  priest, 
who  did  not  murmur,  who  never  grew  blind 
to  the  opening  flowers,  nor  deaf  to  the 
song  of  the  lark.     We  are  grateful  for  the 

55 


JESUS    CHRIST    IN    HUMAN    EXPERIENCE 

men  whom  thou  dost  prepare  in  thine  own 
way,  men  whom  thou  dost  bring  forth  to 
meet  the  crises  when  others  have  fled.  Thou 
dost  preserve  among  us  the  aristocracy  of 
heaven,  men  of  great  spirit  and  abounding 
life,  priestly  men,  with  hearts  of  prophets. 
Thus  our  faith  in  God  is  freshened  and 
preserved. 


56 


JOHN  THE  BAPTIST:  THE  DENIAL  OF 
SELF 

(Luke  3 :  1-20.) 

JOHN  the  Baptist!  What  a  thrill  in  that 
•^  name!  Every  man  in  his  order — the 
prophets,  John,  and  the  apostles.  John 
stood  just  outside  the  Christian  era,  and 
without  his  work  there  would  have  been  a 
decided  limp  in  the  purposes  of  Jehovah. 
It  is  almost  daring  to  attempt  a  description 
of  his  character,  or  even  an  analysis  of  the 
things  that  made  him  great.  The  fact  is 
that  John  was  overwhelmed  in  the  Spirit 
of  God;  It  filled  him,  possessed  him,  and  he 
forgot  everything  save  that  the  Kingdom  of 
God  was  at  hand,  that  its  glory  already 
flushed  the  cast. 

Although  we  are  separated  from  John 
by  twenty  centuries,  there  is  a  subtle  mag- 
netism about  his  character  which,  like 
Shasta  or  the  Matterhorn,  compels  atten- 
tion. He  stands  in  time  with  a  glory  that 
57 


JESUS    CHRIST    IN    HUMAN    EXPERIENCE 

is  peculiarly  his.  There  are  other  peaks 
that  rise  as  high,  and  each  has  its  own 
grandeur — Moses,  Elijah,  Isaiah,  Paul.  If 
they  were  stars,  we  would  exclaim:  What 
a  constellation!  If  rivers:  What  a  system  I 
If  worlds:  What  a  universe! 

But  how  could  John  be  otherwise  with 
such  parentage?  Do  not  kings  beget 
princes?  He  did  not  "happen";  the  blood 
*of  fifteen  centuries  of  priests  ran  in  his 
veins,  and  there  were  none  greater  or  more 
consecrated  than  the  faithful  Zacharias,  of 
Abijah's  course.  For  a  millennium  and  a 
half  his  fathers  had  handled  the  holy  things 
of  Israel.  They  saw  the  Tabernacle  built 
before  Mt.  Sinai,  and  their  eyes  beheld  the 
cloud,  symbolic  of  Jehovah's  presence,  over- 
shadow it.  A  great  company  of  them  were 
present  when  the  glory  of  the  Lord  filled 
the  Temple  on  Mt.  Moriah,  and  it  was 
their  hands  that  carried  the  ark  into  the 
sanctuary  and  placed  it  in  position;  their 
voices  lifted  the  grand  and  holy  chant  that 
rang  through  the  Temple  courts  and  clois- 
ters on  that  greatest  day  of  Israel's  history. 
They  were  among  the  captives  who  returned 
to  repair  and  rebuild  the  Temple  under 
Zerubbabel.       For    fifteen    hundred    years 

68 


THE    DENIAL    OF   SELF 


they  had  voiced  the  liturgy  of  the  Temple 
service.  From  the  day  Moses  applied  to 
Aaron's  right  ear,  thumb  and  toe  the  blood 
of  consecration,  until  Zacharias  saw  the 
angel  on  the  right  side  of  the  altar,  no  feet 
but  theirs  had  trod  the  Holy  Place.  Is  it 
anything  unusual  that  such  an  illustrious  line 
should  flower  in  such  a  character  as  John 
the  Baptist? 

I 

Christianity  is  practically  the  only  re- 
ligion propagated  by  preaching.  There  were 
some  great  preachers  during  the  Jewish  age, 
they  had  no  large  place  in  its  extension.  The 
priest  officiated  at  the  altar,  not  in  the  pulpit. 
One  or  two  of  the  great  Oriental  religions  in 
these  modern  times  have  attempted  the  Chris- 
tian method  of  propagation,  with  indifferent 
success.  But  John  was  nothing  if  not  a 
preacher,  and  yet  his  camel's-hair  clothing 
and  wild-honey  diet  can  not  be  imagined 
in  "cultured"  surroundings.  He  was  a 
priestly  ascetic,  and  it  was  hot  for  him 

"To  walk  the  studious  cloister*s  pale, 
And  love  the  high  embowed  roof, 
With  antique  pillars  massy-proof, 
And  storied  windows  richly  dight 
Casting  a  dim  religious  light." 
59 


JESUS    CHRIST    IN    HUMAN    EXPERIENCE 

On  the  contrary,  he  fits  into  the  out-of-doors, 
the  same  as  the  Master  who  followed  him. 
He  drew  the  multitudes  iiito  the  wilderness 
where  the  scarred  faces  of  the  hills,  to- 
gether with  the  rocks  and  chasms,  made  a 
lit  setting  for  the  rugged  message  he  had 
to  deliver.  Many  went  thither  in  search 
of  the  novel  and  the  exciting,  but,  instead 
of  a  thrill,  they  were  met  by  a  rapier-thrust 
so  keen  that  even  the  king  trembled. 

But  it  was  not  the  wild  scenery  along 
the  Jordan,  nor  yet  the  multitude  that 
streamed  out  of  Jerusalem  to  hear  him,  of 
which  I  am  thinking;  neither  Is  it  the  great 
uninhabited  stretches,  the  rocks  and  the 
scanty  vegetation;  but  I  am  thinking  of  the 
world  of  men  who  are  In  an  Intellectual 
and  spiritual  wilderness,  men  who  can  not 
get  their  bearings.  Ask  a  simple  question 
about  "life,"  *'soul,"  "duty,"  "Immortality," 
and  you  are  not  long  In  discovering  that 
they  believe  black  Is  white;  they  babble  like 
children,  and  there  Is  a  pathos  In  their  con- 
fident Ignorance.  Men  get  down  to  basic 
things  In  law  and  medicine  because  they 
are  compelled  to,  or  be  rejected.  They 
reduce  their  calling  to  a  science,  and  work 
by  approved  formulae.     But  in  matters  of 

60 


THE   DENIAL   OF    SELF 


greatest  import  they  skim  the  surface  with 
a  shallow  mediocrity  that  is  at  once  amus- 
ing and  pathetic.  Strangely  enough,  those 
who  are  the  most  ignorant  of  the  teachings 
of  Jesus  and  of  philosophical  Christianity 
are  the  most  dogmatic  in  their  beliefs,  for 
it  is  they  who  apply  the  epithets  ''narrow" 
and  "bigot"  most  freely.  Pope's  line, 
slightly  changed,  might  apply:  "A  little 
religion  is  a  dangerous  thing." 

John  found  Israel  in  the  wilderness, 
spiritually.  True,  they  were  religious,  if 
tithing  mint-beds  is  being  religious.  But  is 
there  any  spirit  in  that?  John  had  other 
ideas.  He  called  the  aristocrats  a  "genera- 
tion of  vipers,"  and  Jesus,  a  few  months 
later,  called  them  "whited  sepulchres."  As 
vipers  they  hissed  at  John,  and  as  sepulchres 
they  frequently  exposed  the  moral  rottenness 
within. 

Our  century  has  plenty  of  religion,  if 
counting  beads  and  making  faces  at  a 
painted  devil  is  religion.  If  religion  con- 
sists in  folding  manicured  hands  over  fat 
bellies  and  sleeping  through  the  sermon,  we 
are  religious.  But  if  religion  means  lighten- 
ing the  loads  of  the  poor;  if  it  consists  in 
making  the  rich  sinner  (or  saint)  pay  just 

61 


JESUS    CHRIST    IN    HUMAN    EXPERIENCE 

and  equal  taxes;  if  religion  means  checking 
and  destroying  the  liquor  traffic  and  saving 
our  boys  and  girls;  if  it  means  making 
graft  and  bribery  unpopular  and  unsafe;  if 
it  means  the  application  of  the  Golden 
Rule,  and  giving  every  man  a  square  deal 
— why,  then,  we  are  not  so  very  religious 
after  all,  and  we  are  still  in  the  wilderness. 

We  have  possessed  such  remarkable 
eyesight  that  we  have  penetrated  the  depths 
of  eternity  to  come,  and  have  located 
every  bush,  brook  and  flower  in  the  heaven 
of  heavens,  sometimes  going  so  far  as  to 
stake  out  our  claim.  By  anticipation  we 
have  lain  under  the  shade  of  the  trees  of 
heaven  when  we  should  have  been  at  work 
on  earth;  we  have  been  so  intent  on  splash- 
ing about  in  the  river  of  life  and  walking 
on  the  streets  of  gold  that  we  have  failed 
to  see  the  pinched  faces  of  the  children 
that  pass  our  doors  daily,  nor  have  we 
heard  their  cry  for  bread.  It  is  a  great 
comfort  to  be  ready  for  heaven  and  wait- 
ing for  the  summons,  but  we  may  miss  the 
angels  unless  we  have  a  care. 

When  Scipio  conquered  the  Cartha- 
ginians the  Romans  called  him  "Af ricanus" ; 
Attila  was  called  "The  Scourge  of  God," 

62 


THE    DENIAL   OF    SELF 


and  Bismarck,  *'The  Iron  Duke."  But  the 
very  unique  title  given  John  is  "A  Voice." 
A  voice  is  without  dimensions,  either  in 
quality  or  quantity;  it  refuses  to  yield  to 
the  tape-line  or  the  quart-measure.  It  is 
true  that  musicians  speak  of  the  voice  as 
if  it  had  extensity,  but  their  terms  are 
purely  arbitrary.  They  speak  of  the  color 
of  the  tone;  they  say  a  voice  is  heavy  or 
light,  white  or  dark,  round  or  thin.  John 
may  or  may  not  have  had  a  musical  voice, 
but  it  is  certain  his  voice  carried  power 
and  conviction;  it  carried  accusation  to 
those  who  were  living  careless,  indifferent 
lives;  the  voice  of  the  wilderness  preacher 
stung  them  until  they  saw  their  wickedness, 
and  no  class  was  exempt.  The  scribe  and 
the  Pharisee,  with  all  their  pride  of  ances- 
try, were  there,  yet  John's  words  pierced 
their  hearts  like  the  shafts  from  a  bow.  At 
the  other  extreme  of  the  social  ladder  were 
the  publicans,  the  most  cordially  hated 
class  in  all  Palestine,  yet  they  came  to  him 
for  advice. 

But  the  most  striking  company  in  all 
that  Jordan  multitude  was  the  soldiery  of 
Rome.  John  showed  his  ability  as  a 
preacher  when  he  awakened  both  extremes 

63 


JESUS    CHRIST    IN    HUMAN    EXPERIENCE 

of  the  Jewish  people,  yet  we  are  not  so 
much  amazed  at  it  because  they  had  a  com- 
mon ancestry,  a  common  religion  and  a 
common  hope.  When  he  penetrated  the 
shell  of  their  indifference  he  found  there  a 
Jewish  soul;  but  what  must  have  been  the 
force  of  his  words,  the  magnetism  of  his 
voice  and  the  strength  of  his  gospel  that 
brought  the  soldiers  to  him,  asking:  "And 
what  shall  we  do?"  They  were  the  repre- 
sentatives of  the  ruling  power,  a  world- 
wide power,  a  power  that  looked  upon  the 
Jew  as  a  narrow  bigot  and  a  religious 
fanatic.  But  that  "voice  in  the  wilderness" 
cast  a  spell  upon  all  that  heard  it. 

"Make  ready."  This  is  a  constructive 
term  and  looks  forward.  In  a  splendid 
sense  it  is  one  of  the  great  keywords  of 
the  Scriptures;  it  represents  the  heart  of 
the  teaching  of  Jesus,  for  did  he  not  come 
to  prepare  men?  The  figure  of  the  con- 
struction of  the  highway  for  the  visiting 
monarch  is  too  well  known  to  be  discussed; 
but  there  is  the  vision  of  the  heart  In 
which  there  are  the  hills  of  pride  and 
selfishness,  hearts  cut  through  with  sloughs 
of  low  desires,  hearts  from  which  rise  the 
fetid  odors  of  passion  gone  mad.      Make 

64 


THE    DENIAL   OF   SELF 


ready    the    highway,    cut    down    the    hills, 
exalt  the  valleys;  thy  King  cometh! 

II 

Absinthe,  opium  and  alcohol  have  their 
peculiar  power  over  the  user,  but  none  is 
more  subtle,  more  dangerous,  than  popu- 
larity. What  will  a  man  not  give  to  obtain 
it?  For  it  men  attempt  what  they  are  not, 
and  end  in  disgrace.  John  met  the  same 
temptation.  Later  Israel  had  one  character 
around  which  its  national  life  revolved;  he 
became  a  fixed  part  of  their  national  con- 
sciousness— the  Messiah.  From  the  very 
beginning  that  idea  gradually  unfolded  it- 
self. The  sorrows  of  the  captivity  gave 
It  greater  impulse;  hence  the  prophets  of 
the  decline  and  servitude  sang  vigorously 
of  a  Deliverer  who  moved  under  such 
majestic  titles  as  "Mighty  God,"  "Prince 
of  Peace."  And  when  the  Roman  crushed 
his  iron  heel  down  upon  the  already  sorely 
afflicted  Jew,  his  desire  for  the  immediate 
manifestation  of  his  Messiah  increased  a 
hundred-fold. 

So  It  Is  not  strange  that  the  Jewish 
leaders  sent  a  deputation  to  John  asking 
who  he  was,  for  they  hoped  that  he  might 

5  65 


JESUS    CHRIST    IN    HUMAN    EXPERIENCE 

be  their  Deliverer.  It  was  an  opportunity 
for  John  to  gain  favor  at  once.  Could  he 
not  command  these  stones  to  be  made  loaves 
and  eat  the  sweet  bread  of  popularity? 
But  John  was  not  that  kind  of  a  man;  he 
knew  such  favor  at  best  could  be  but  short- 
lived.    So  "he  confessed,  and  denied  not.'* 

The  Jews  had  an  idea,  also,  that  Elijah 
was  to  revisit  them.  He  had  wrought 
wonders  among  their  fathers  and  had  been 
taken  from  the  earth  in  a  chariot  of  fire. 
Elijah  and  John  had  so  much  in  common 
that  the  people  throughout  Jerusalem  and 
Judea  said:  "Elijah  hath  returned."  That 
was  also  an  easy  road  to  popularity — 
"Elijah's  double."  But  John  was  too  big 
for  that. 

Centuries  had  passed  since  the  voice 
of  a  prophet  had  been  heard  in  Israel,  and 
they  were  expecting  one  to  appear.  If 
John  were  not  the  Messiah  nor  Elijah,  then 
certainly  he  was  "that  prophet."  If  he 
pretended  to  be  the  Messiah,  that  subter- 
fuge would  soon  be  shattered;  if  he  posed 
as  the  reincarnated  Elijah,  he  might  be 
unmasked;  but  is  there  any  human  way  in 
which  they  could  have  proved  that  he  was 
not  "that  prophet"?     Under  that  guise  he 

66 


THE   DENIAL   OF   SELF 


would  have  been  safe.  But  John  was  not 
in  the  world  to  gain  the  acclaim  of  a  fickle 
populace.  To-day  they  shout  "Hosanna!"; 
to-morrow,  "Crucify!"  He  was  simply  the 
''voice  in  the  wilderness." 

There  was  an  artist  who  painted  a 
magnificent  picture  of  "The  Last  Supper," 
but  he  made  the  cup  in  the  hand  of  Christ 
so  beautiful  that  men  admired  it  rather 
than  the  face  of  Jesus  above  it.  Seeing  his 
mistake,  the  artist  drew  his  brush  through 
the  cup,  saying  he  would  have  nothing 
detract  from  the  glory  of  his  Lord  and 
Master.  So  John  sought  to  eliminate  every 
element  of  his  personality,  reducing  himself 
to  nothing  but  "a  voice  in  the  wilderness." 
What  a  lesson  for  our  self-seeking  age,  an 
age  when  men  are  studying  every  trick  and 
art  of  self-exaltation.  "Whosoever  hum- 
bleth  himself  shall  be  exalted." 

On  human  grounds  John's  action  can  not 
be  accounted  for.  A  man  in  search  of 
self-advancement  would  have  chosen  one 
of  the  three  alternatives:  Messiah,  Elijah 
or  prophet.  Two  were  comparatively  safe; 
one  carried  some  hazard,  but  history 
abounds  in  examples  of  men  who  have 
played  their  lives   against  more   desperate 

67 


JESUS    CHRIST    IN    HUMAN    EXPERIENCE 

odds  than  that.  Sometimes  they  won; 
more  often  they  lost.  If  John  had  been 
moved  by  an  ordinary  ambition,  he  would 
have  taken  the  chance.  But  he  was  con- 
scious of  a  great  mission;  he  was  to  speak 
the  prologue  of  the  great  drama.  He 
knew  somewhere  among  the  millions  of 
Israel  was  One  mightier,  and  that  he 
would  appear  in  due  season.  Hence  John 
had  no  time  for  horn-blowing  and  feather- 
preening;  he  was  the  messenger  of  Jehovah. 
Hard  hearts  must  be  broken,  hills  leveled, 
valleys  exalted;  the  crooked  ways  straight- 
ened; the  King  was  at  the  door. 

There  is  the  call  to  every  heart,  but 
the  noise  of  the  world  frequently  drowns 
it;  yet  as  we  answer  we  soar  to  the  skies, 
as  we  neglect  we  grovel.  Was  John  poor? 
Perhaps.  But  what  poverty  of  understand- 
ing we  betray  when  we  use  our  physical 
eyes  to  measure  spiritual  values.  They 
were  made  for  color  and  form,  but  the 
infra-red  and  the  ultra-violet  quite  escape. 
Our  ears  were  made  for  harmony,  but 
neither  eye  nor  ear  can  catch  the  color  and 
concord  of  things  spiritual;  it  is  only  by 
that  sixth  sense — faith — that  they  are  dis- 
cerned.    John  dwelt  in  that  higher  atmos- 

68 


THE   DENIAL   OF   SELF 


phere,     caring    nothing     of     what     others 
thought  of  him;  he  knew  his  own  valuation. 

Ill 

Curiosity  did  not  get  the  better  of  that 
wilderness  preacher.  He  had  no  time  to 
spend  in  idle  search  for  Jesus;  it  was  of 
more  consequence  to  be  ready  when  he 
met  him.  John  knew  his  day  was  short; 
therefore  he  crowded  a  tremendous  amount 
of  work  into  it.  In  those  six  months  he 
burned  enough  energy  to  supply  an  ordi- 
nary mortal  a  decade.  There  was  an 
intensity  about  his  preaching  that  startled 
even  the  ease-loving,  sensual  Herod,  and 
aroused  the  tigress  in  his  wife.  John's 
career  was  cut  short  in  the  midst  of  his 
usefulness,  and  he  was  thrust  into  prison; 
but  not  until  he  had  baptized  the  young 
Galilean  whose  work  began  when  John's 
closed. 

Was  John's  life  a  failure?  All  that 
we  know  of  it  is  contained  in  a  very  frag- 
mentary account  covering  about  six  months. 
There  is  no  record  that  he  ever  preached 
in  Jerusalem,  or  that  he  ever  saw  the  city. 
After  a  brief  half-year  in  the  wilderness 
he  was   seized  and   executed.     Thus  does 

69 


JESUS    CHRIST    IN    HUMAN    EXPERIENCE 

the  world  treat  its  heroes.  It  is  said  that 
Abraham  can  be  traced  through  Palestine 
by  his  altars;  so  the  progress  of  justice, 
liberty  and  righteousness  can  be  tracked 
across  the  centuries  by  the  stake,  the  cross, 
the  rack  and  the  arena.  But  such  are  the 
lives  that  illuminate  succeeding  ages;  they 
hearten  the  multitudes  that  bear  the  world 
onward  toward  God's  ideal.  We  need 
and  must  have  the  men  who  do  not  care 
for  rank  or  title  or  lineage;  yet  they  must 
be  men  of  humility  who  gladly  say  of  the 
Lord:  "He  must  increase,  but  I  must  de- 
crease; I  am  unworthy  to  unloose  the 
thong  of  his  sandal." 

O  God,  there  are  so  many  wonderful 
things  in  this  revelation  of  thyself  to  us 
that  our  souls  are  bewildered.  Thy  Holy 
Spirit  hath  breathed  its  power  upon  these 
great  men,  and  they  have  burned  them- 
selves out  before  the  dull,  uncomprehending 
eyes  of  this  world;  yet  to  every  question 
they  have  answered:  *'Look  for  One 
greater." 

Forbid  that  we  should  become  puffed 
up  over  the  petty  honors  men  would  place 
on  our  shoulders,  but  aid  us  to  keep  our 
station  in  life   humbly   and  without   osten- 

70 


THE    DENIAL    OF    SELF 


tation,  believing  that  at  the  great  marriage- 
feast  of  the  Lamb  thou  wilt  say  to  those 
who  have  toiled:  "Come  up  higher."  Life 
can  not  be  called  a  failure  when  it  is  used 
ever  so  humbly  to  glorify  the  name  of  thy 
holy  Son,  whose  power  shall  never  wane, 
and  whose  Kingdom  shall  never  end. 


n 


VI 

NICODEMUS:  ARISTOCRAT 

(John  3:1-5-) 

T^HERE  have  been  a  great  many  un- 
-*■  complimentary  things  said  about 
Nicodemus.  Aside  from  Mary  Magdalene, 
he  has  been  the  most  slandered  character 
in  the  New  Testament.  He  has  been 
accused  of  dodging  into  the  "side  entrance"; 
he  has  been  consigned  to  Hades  simply 
because  he  talked  with  Jesus  after  dark. 
Men  ought  not  to  pass  judgment  until  they 
have  the  facts,  and  facts  they  do  not  have 
in  this  case;  simply  the  statement:  "He 
came  to  Jesus  by  night."  Christ  "knew 
what  was  in  man,"  and,  if  Nicodemus  had 
been  a  coward,  Christ  would  not  have 
passed  it  by  without  comment.  Here  is 
rather  a  great  heart  in  search  of  truth. 
He  was  a  man  of  intellect  as  well  as  spirit, 
and  in  these  Jesus  touched  his  experience 
and  opened  up  to  him  the  possibilities  of  a 
re-born  life. 

72 


NICODEMUS:   ARISTOCRAT 


The  enemies  of  Jesus  have  said  a  great 
many  harsh  and  unkind  things  about  him, 
but  they  have  never  accused  him  of  cow- 
ardice. He  always  met  them  squarely,  and 
often  to  their  extreme  discomfort.  At  the 
first  Passover  after  the  beginning  of  his 
ministry,  he  faced  what  was,  to  him,  a  very 
aggravating  condition — a  portion  of  the 
Temple  had  been  converted  into  a  merchan- 
dising department.  If  the  space  were  not 
actually  needed  to  accommodate  the  throngs 
of  Israel,  at  least  It  should  have  been  with- 
out the  lowing  of  bulls,  the  bleating  of 
sheep  and  the  shouts  of  the  money-changers. 
Jesus  did  not  stop  to  remonstrate  or  argue; 
he  perfectly  understood  that  type  of  his 
countrymen.  They  had  to  be  driven,  for 
there  was  no  argument  that  outweighed  the 
half-shekel.  There  was  doubtless  much 
muttering  about  "precedent,"  "license," 
"rights,"  and  there  may  have  been  covert 
threats  of  violence,  but  they  dared  not 
resist  his  authority;  they  went! 

Abuses  burn  In  the  hearts  of  good  men, 
yet  few  have  both  the  courage  and  the 
ability  to  redress  great  wrongs.    NIcodemus 

73 


JESUS    CHRIST    IN    HUMAN    EXPERIENCE 

had  seen  the  "signs"  Jesus  had  done  in 
those  early  days;  he  had  seen  the  holy 
flash  in  the  keen  eye  of  the  young  Galilean 
as  he  drove  the  cattle  from  the  sacred 
enclosure;  he  had  heard  the  blistering  com- 
mand: "Take  these  things  hence;  make  not 
my  Father's  house  a  house  of  merchandise." 
During  those  first  few  weeks  Jesus  had 
stirred  up  more  sentiment,  favorable  and 
otherwise,  than  Jerusalem  had  known  since 
the  days  of  the  prophets. 

It  is  refreshing  to  find  a  man  who  cuts 
directly  across  precedents  of  centuries  stand- 
ing, a  man  with  a  personality  strong  enough 
to  rip  through  our  hidebound  social  customs 
and  overturn  our  doll-houses.  We  so  easily 
fossilize — ossify.  It  is  a  wholesome  thing 
for  society  to  gasp — gasp  twice — as  Jeru- 
salem did  when  Jesus  began  his  Temple 
reform. 

Thoughtful  men  find  In  Jesus  a  fact  to 
be  reckoned  with.  By  this  is  not  meant 
simply  the  historical  fact  of  Jesus.  That 
there  was  such  a  man  living  at  the  time, 
and  in  the  place  the  Scriptures  designate,  is 
universally  admitted.  During  the  three 
years  of  his  earthly  ministry  Jesus  Christ 
created  a  universe  of  which  he  is  the  center. 

74 


NICODEMUS:   ARISTOCRAT 


After  his  departure,  four  men  in  different 
places  gathered  out  of  their  memories  such 
of  his  teaching  as  they  recalled.  Later, 
other  men,  by  the  inspiration  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,  added  to  what  had  already  been 
written.  These  writings  are  gathered  into 
one  volume,  and  Jesus  is  the  subject.  The 
New  Testament  can  not  be  imagined  with- 
out him,  so  thoroughly  does  he  pervade  it 
and  his  Spirit  saturate  it.  It  is  this  "whole'* 
that  demands  explanation,  as  every  thinking 
man  will  admit. 

The  keen  eye  of  Nicodemus  saw  at  once 
that  Jesus  was  unlike  any  man  of  that 
age,  unlike  any  man  that  had  ever  thrilled 
Israel  since  Moses  or  Samuel  or  the  proph- 
ets, and  he  was  frank  enough  to  admit  it 
in  his  first  sentence:  "We  know  thou  art  a 
teacher  come  from  God."  Men  have  borne 
the  same  testimony  throughout  the  cen- 
turies since;  they  could  not  do  otherwise 
and  leave  Jesus  a  shred  of  respectability. 
He  was  what  he  claimed  to  be,  or  else  he 
was  the  rawest  counterfeit. 

If  a  man  has  never  seen  the  ocean,  you 
can  not  Impress  him  very  much  by  tell- 
ing him  of  it,  no  matter  what  your  com- 
mand   of    language    or    your    power    of 

75 


JESUS    CHRIST    IN    HUMAN    EXPERIENCE 

description.  But  some  morning  lead  him 
out  on  a  high  promontory  overlooking  that 
wild  waste  of  waters;  let  him  see  the  great 
combers  which  pound  the  rocks  with  the 
boom  of  thunder;  let  him  catch  a  whiff  of 
the  brine,  and  watch  the  wind-whipped 
spray,  and  hear  the  wild  cry  of  the  sea-gulls 
speeding  over  the  foam-crested  waves;  let 
him  gaze  right  and  left,  and  turn  his  glass 
to  the  sky-line,  where  there  is  nothing  but 
riotous,  seething  waves,  fighting,  hissing, 
smashing — then  he  will  begin  to  awaken  to 
the  grandeur  of  the  sea.  Likewise,  lan- 
guage fails  to  convey  the  meaning  when 
a  description  of  Christ  is  attempted;  he 
must  be  seen  by  the  soul  to  be  appreciated. 
But  some  are  so  busy  fishing  in  a  gallon 
bucket  that  they  never  think  of  the  sea. 
The  question,  *'What  think  ye  of  Christ?" 
must  be  answered.  Jesus  is  here ;  his  system 
is  here ;  he  claims  to  be  the  Son  of  God,  and 
his  system  claims  to  be  the  way  of  life. 
Every  man  who  digs  an  inch  below  the 
surface  will  investigate  very  carefully  before 
passing  final  judgment.  But  investigation 
means  work;  hence,  our  beliefs  are  as 
they  are,  not  necessarily  because  they  are 
true,    but    because    they    are    "orthodox"! 

76 


NICODEMUS:   ARISTOCRAT 


Xruth  has  always  gone  the  way  of  the 
cross  and  the  stake  before  men  would 
accept  it. 

These  signs  demand  explanation.  Nico- 
demus  was  not  an  ignorant,  unlettered  man; 
he  was  a  "man  of  the  Pharisees,"  a  "ruler 
of  the  Jews."  Jesus  had  at  his  command 
certain  phenomena  which  the  thoughtful 
Nicodemus  termed  "signs."  The  Greek 
term  means  "miracles  by  which  God  authen- 
ticates men  sent  by  him,  or  by  which  men 
prove  the  cause  they  are  representing  is 
God's."  The  question,  then,  is:  Was 
Nicodemus  intellectually  qualified  to  pass 
sound  judgment  on  the  works  of  Jesus? 
If  so,  then  why  discredit  him  and  accept 
Josephus  or  Tacitus  or  Pliny?  Does  simply 
the  fact  that  they  were  writers  entitle  them 
to  more  consideration?  If  a  United  States 
Senator  has  never  written  a  volume,  his 
testimony  is  just  as  valuable  in  court  as  the 
testimony  of  another  who  has  a  dozen 
volumes  to  his  credit.  Nicodemus  was  a 
member  of  the  Sanhedrin,  the  Jewish 
Senate.  His  testimony  is  thus:  "No  man 
can  do  the  things  you  are  doing  without  the 
intervention  of  divine  power."  The  San- 
hedrin was  a  religious  court,  and  a  member 

77 


JESUS    CHRIST    IN    HUMAN    EXPERIENCE 

of  it  ought  to  be  able  to  pass  sound  judg- 
ment on  religious  phenomena,  as  Munster- 
berg,  or  Titchener,  or  Baldwin,  is  qualified 
to  pass  upon  things  psychological. 

It  is  quite  the  modern  custom  to  dis- 
miss these  "signs"  by  saying  that  that  was 
an  age  when  men  knew  little  or  nothing  of 
the  simplest  scientific  laws.  He  who  uses 
that  statement  so  glibly  might  learn  some- 
thing to  his  advantage  were  he  to  consult 
any  volume  of  history  dealing  with  that 
age.  Every  college  and  university  has  a 
Greek  and  Latin  course — languages  that 
reached  perfection  centuries  before  the 
Christian  era.  Twenty-five  hundred  years 
hence,  will  the  Hterature  of  the  twentieth 
century  be  the  model  in  the  institutions  of 
learning?  We  pat  ourselves  on  the  back 
as  the  only  people  who  ever  knew  anything. 
Should  we  maintain  that  attitude  consistent- 
ly, we  will  have  to  cast  aside  a  great  many 
things  other  than  the  miracles  of  Jesus.  It 
is  easier  and  far  less  difficult  to  accept  the 
statements  of  the  Gospel  writers  at  their 
face  value.  Explanations  involve  in  a  hope- 
less web  of  contradictions  from  which  there 
is  no  escape.  The  Scriptures  call  Jesus 
the   Son   of   God.      Admit   that   fact,    and 

78 


NICODEMUS:   ARISTOCRAT 


what  hinders  the  miracles?  But  to  admit 
that  he  is  the  Son  of  God  is  to  admit  sin — 
and  guilt — and  condemnation. 

Nicodemus  reasoned  correctly;  there  is 
but  one  conclusion:  "No  man  can  do  these 
signs  except  God  be  with  him."  Christ 
said:  ''I  and  the  Father  are  one."  If  God 
created  all  things  at  the  beginning,  could 
he  not  change  the  form  of  an  infinitesimal 
portion  of  them  when  he  was  on  earth? 
The  difficulty  is  that  men  fail  to  identify 
Christ  as  God;  they  try  to  crowd  him  into 
a  teacup;  they  "pooh-pooh"  at  what  they 
can  not  understand,  yet  they  can  not  under- 
stand the  function  of  their  own  minds. 

"He  who  through  vast  immensity  can  pierce, 
See  worlds  on  worlds  compose  one  universe; 
Observe  how  system  into  system  runs, 
What  other  planets  circle  other  suns; 
What  varied  beings  people  every  star — 
May  tell  why  God  has  made  us  as  we  are." 

II 

Men  miss  Jesus  because  of  his  sim- 
plicity. Naaman  nearly  missed  health  be- 
cause he  was  expecting  complicated  treat- 
ment from  the  prophet.  Dip  in  Jordan — is 
that  all?  "I  thought  he  would  come  out, 
and   stand,    and   call   on   the   name   of  his 

79 


JESUS    CHRIST    IN    HUMAN    EXPERIENCE 

God,  and  wave  his  hand  over  the  place." 
But  doing  a  simple  thing  saved  him. 

The  Jews  expected  their  Messiah  to  be 
helmet-crowned  and  saber-girded;  they  ex- 
pected him  to  wear  a  coat  of  mail  and  speak 
with  the  trumpet  of  brass;  they  expected 
legions  to  spring  up  when  he  smote  the 
earth;  they  expected  him  to  be  accompanied 
by  the  rattle  of  chariots  and  the  staccato 
of  hoofs.  Power  and  deliverance  were  the 
two  words  he  must  personify.  But  they 
were  doomed  to  disappointment.  Instead 
of  a  burnished  helm,  he  wore  a  crown  of 
thorns;  instead  of  a  saber,  they  thrust  a 
reed  into  his  hands;  instead  of  riding  on  a 
wide-nostriled  stallion,  he  came  meek  and 
lowly,  sitting  upon  an  ass;  instead  of  a  coat 
of  mail,  a  seamless  tunic;  instead  of  the 
sharp,  ringing  command  that  brought  thou- 
sands to  their  feet,  he  calmly  announced: 
"My  kingdom  is  not  of  this  world." 

Men  have  always  looked  for  a  Messiah 
that  fitted  their  conceptions — intellectual, 
social,  philosophical — rather  than  the  one 
who  said:  *'I  am  meek  and  lowly  In  heart." 
Ever  since  the  first  century  the  scholastic 
world  has  had  Jesus  under  the  microscope. 
Every  jot   and   tittle   of  his   teaching  has 

80 


NICODEMUS:   ARISTOCRAT 


been  split  and  quarter-sawed  by  men  who 
are  wise  above  what  has  been  written.  They 
have  made  the  Master  teach  what  he  never 
intended  to  teach,  and  say  things  adverse 
and  foreign  to  his  mission.  They  discover 
— or  think  they  discover — in  his  teaching 
germs  of  this  or  that  school  of  thought. 
There  is  depth  to  his  doctrine,  but  it  is  not 
the  kind  that  robs  a  man  of  his  common 
sense,  for  Jesus  was  pre-eminently  practical, 
and  this  is  where  many  miss  him.  Said  he 
to  the  sinful  woman:  "Sin  no  more."  The 
parable  of  the  good  Samaritan  forever 
settles  the  question  of  "neighbor."  Zac- 
chsEus  saw  the  meaning  of  the  Christ  when 
he  said:  "The  half  of  my  goods  I  give  to 
the  poor;  and  where  I  have  been  extortion- 
ate, I  restore  fourfold."  And  yet  Christ 
is  the  teacher  of  the  sublimest  philosophy 
of  all:  "Thou  shalt  love  the  Lord  thy  God 
with  all  thy  heart,  and  thy  neighbor  as 
thyself." 

Nicodemus  made  the  mistake  commonly 
made  by  men  to-day;  he  tried  to  explain 
the  new  birth  on  intellectual  grounds.  When 
men  face  the  supernatural,  the  inexplicable, 
their  query,  tinged  with  the  hopelessness  of 
doubt,    is:    "How    can    these    things    be?" 

6  81 


JESUS    CHRIST    IN    HUMAN    EXPERIENCE 

Nicodemus  stumbled  at  the  idea  of  the  new 
birth,  and,  in  seeking  to  explain  it  on  natural 
grounds,  made  it  both  grotesque  and  impos- 
sible, as  well  as  missing  the  greatness  and 
beauty  of  the  idea  Jesus  had  just  expressed. 
When  men  seek  to  explain  Christianity  as 
a  purely  intellectual  phenomenon,  by  that 
very  act  they  show  they  have  not  grasped 
either  the  intent  or  the  content  of  the 
Saviour's  mission. 

Our  bodies  live  and  move  and  have  their 
being  in  a  world  subject  to  physical  laws, 
but  there  is  another  world  in  which  the 
spirit  of  man  lives  and  moves,  a  world 
over  which  the  physical  has  no  control  and 
into  which  it  can  not  enter.  The  laws  of 
the  one  have  no  more  influence  In  the  other 
than  chemistry  has  In  the  domain  of  psy- 
chology. Earthly  things,  earthly  laws; 
spiritual  things,  spiritual  laws.  If  men 
insist  on  looking  at  spiritual  things  from 
an  earthly  viewpoint,  they  must  of  neces- 
sity ask:  "How  can  these  things  be?"  We 
can  not  explain  heavenly  things  by  earthly 
standards. 

Here  Jesus  turned  the  attention  of  this 
scholarly  Jew  to  one  of  the  great  facts  In 

82 


NICODEMUS:   ARISTOCRAT 


their  national  history,  for  at  one  time  they 
had  been  saved  from  extinction  by  an 
uplifted  brazen  serpent.  Not  that  there 
was  any  virtue  in  that  brass  replica  of  the 
reptile  that  had  wrought  such  damage  in 
Israel,  but  its  image  prefigured  the  great 
Cure  that  would  some  day  be  uplifted  in 
Jerusalem,  not  only  for  Israel's  hurt,  but 
for  all  nations.  Somehow,  looking  upon 
that  curious  emblem,  the  poison  lost  its 
effect  upon  the  sufferer,  and  somehow  it 
has  pleased  God  to  heal  the  world  through 
his  Son.  The  deadly  virus  of  sin  has 
poisoned  every  fiber  of  the  soul,  just  as 
the  burning  poison  from  the  serpent's  fang 
swept  through  the  bodies  of  the  fathers 
of  Israel,  Looking  at  the  brazen  serpent, 
their  bodies  were  healed.  Christ  heals  that 
which  is  more  difficult — the  soul,  which  has 
no  corporeal  existence,  yet  which  is  as  real 
as  time  and  space. 

In  this  connection  may  arise  the  ques- 
tion of  the  atonement,  a  thing  repudiated 
by  many  as  incompatible  with  divine  love. 
We  are  informed  that  the  idea  of  God 
laying  the  sins  of  the  world  on  the  shoul- 
ders of  an  innocent  person  is  repugnant  to 
our  fundamental  ideas  of  justice  and  right. 

83 


JESUS    CHRIST    IN    HUMAN    EXPERIENCE 

And  so  it  is.  But  this  probably  arises  from 
the  fact  that  such  persons  overlook  the 
fact  that  Jesus  Christ  is  God.  If  a  physi- 
cian, seeking  to  discover  the  remedy  for 
leprosy,  gives  himself  to  a  leper  colony, 
and  in  due  time  contracts  the  disease  and 
dies,  there  is  nothing  in  it  incompatible  with 
our  ideas  of  right  and  justice;  on  the  con- 
trary, we  applaud  the  heroism  that  led 
him  to  die  for  his  fellow-men.  His  life  was 
his  own  and  he  had  the  right  to  use  it  as 
he  saw  best.  Jesus  Christ  is  God,  and, 
looking  upon  the  race  of  men,  concluded 
that  by  giving  his  life  he  could  bring  them 
back  to  the  Father  and  to  himself.  His 
life  was  his  own,  and  he  had  the  right  to 
use  It  as  he  saw  fit.  There  is  nothing  re- 
pugnant about  that;  rather,  we  applaud  the 
heroism  that  would  lead  even  a  God  to  die, 
If  necessary,  to  save  the  race.  Hence  Jesus 
Christ  allowed  himself  to  be  lifted  up  on 
the  cross  for  the  salvation  of  men.  He  said 
no  man  could  take  his  life  from  him;  he 
had  power  to  lay  it  down  and  he  had  power 
to  take  it  up. 

This  Is  a  heavenly  thing  and  can  not 
be  understood  from  an  earthly  standpoint. 
To  the  Jew  It  was  a  stumbling-block;   to 

84 


NICODEMUS:   ARISTOCRAT 


the  Greek,   foolishness;  but  to  us  that  are 
saved  it  is  the  power  of  God. 

O  God,  here  is  one  of  those  rare  souls 
to  whom  the  Christ  makes  his  powerful 
appeal.  We  pray  that  our  judgment  may 
always  be  tempered  with  wisdom,  and  that 
we,  as  Nicodemus,  may  go  in  search  of 
those  deeper  mysteries  of  Christian  experi- 
ence. We  thank  thee  for  the  vitalizing 
Holy  Spirit,  by  whose  instrumentality  we 
are  "born  again";  who  creates  within  us 
that  sublime  confidence,  and  constrains  our 
hearts  to  say:  "We  know  thou  art  a  teacher 
sent  from  God."  Let  thy  Spirit  teach  us 
that  the  things  of  the  flesh  profit  nothing, 
but  that  he  that  is  "born  anew"  shall  pos- 
sess the  life  that  cometh  from  thee — life 
everlasting. 


85 


VII 

A  SOUL'S  AWAKENING 

(John  4:  1-42.) 

T^  HIS  conversation  unfolded  truth  as 
•■■  well  as  beauty,  enthralling,  stimu- 
lating, kindling.  The  present  mission  of 
the  woman  at  the  well  was  absorbed  in 
another  infinitely  more  important.  Jesus 
was  no  idle  talker,  neither  did  he  remain 
silent  when  a  representative  of  the  tradi- 
tional enemy  of  his  country  was  near.  Here 
were  hidden  possibilities,  though  hardened 
by  a  false  life.  Contact  with  Jesus  broke 
the  crust,  and  she  was  soon  thrilling  with  a 
new  life.  She  came  a  hostile,  indifferent 
sinner;  she  left  a  blazing  evangel,  crying: 
"Come,  see  a  man!" 

John  had  the  touch  of  a  literary  artist. 
Lights  and  shadows  are  set  opposite  in 
startling  effect.  His  third  chapter  deals 
with  an  aristocrat,  a  Pharisee.  Purple  and 
fine  linen  are  so  close  that  they  can  almost 
be  touched;  there  is  the  perfectly  modulated 

86 


A   SOUL'S   AWAKENING 


voice  of  the  man  who  never  allowed  him- 
self to  become  excited,  nor  caught  off  guard; 
there  is  the  courtly  dignity  of  "the  ruler 
of  the  Jews";  there  is  the  studied  poise  and 
accent  of  the  scholar — and  there  is  Jesus. 
But  when  the  fourth  chapter  opens,  the 
other  extreme  of  society  is  opposite  the 
Master.  A  woman  of  the  Samaritans,  an 
outcast,  a  drawer  of  water. 


We  are  quick  to  catch  the  viewpoint  of 
those  in  our  own  class,  but  it  is  difficult  to 
see  the  outer  rim  where  the  down-and-outs 
are.  They  have  been  battered  beyond  the 
pale  of  decency,  and  when  we  meet  them 
we  wag  our  heads  philosophically,  saying: 
"It  takes  all  kinds  to  make  a  world."  Pos- 
sibly; but  is  it  not  equally  true  that  the 
world  makes  all  kinds,  among  whom  are 
the  Jean  Valjeans  on  the  outer  bounds? 
The  contemptuous  slur  slung  at  Jesus  was: 
"He  receiveth  publicans  and  sinners,  and 
eateth  with  them."  That  damned  him  with 
the  fat-brained  aristocracy.  They  wanted 
him  on  their  own  little  pedestal,  where 
they  could  wine  him  and  dine  him  and  lion- 
ize him,  while  the  great,  hungry  multitude 

87 


JESUS    CHRIST    IN    HUMAN    EXPERIENCE 

peered  through  the  grating.  But  when 
they  thought  they  had  him  all  to  themselves, 
he  called  Levi  the  publican  to  be  one  of 
his  chosen  circle;  he  said  to  the  sinful 
woman  who  bathed  his  feet  with  penitent 
tears:  "Thy  sins  are  forgiven.'' 

To-day  nearly  all  the  goods  on  the 
market  bear  a  trademark.  If  it  does  not 
bear  "our  brand,"  it  is  notoriously  counter- 
feit and  its  manufacturers  the  worst  frauds 
out  of  jail.  Men  have  tried  to  "trade- 
mark" Jesus;  they  have  tried  to  make  him 
"Papist,"  or  "Anglican,"  or  "Calvinist"; 
but  Jesus  bears  no  man's  brand.  His  com- 
mand is:  "Follow  meJ^  His  gospel  is  for 
the'  world.  If  he  never  did  anything  else 
than  show  the  solidarity  of  the  race,  its 
interdependence,  his  mission  was  a  success. 

The  woman  of  Samaria  stands  as  a  type 
of  social  outlaws;  a  class  into  whose  lives 
■ — their  real  lives — the  world  seldom  gets 
a  glimpse.  Occasionally  they  meet  a  per- 
sonality who  has  a  genius  for  friendship, 
whose  subtle  influence  draws  from  them  the 
story  of  an  unequal  struggle  and  unfair 
advantages.  Jesus  discovered  to  the  world 
that  no  man's  heart  is  wholly  bad.  It  is 
as  a  harp;  sin  may  rust  and  corrode  and 

88 


A   SOUL'S   AWAKENING 


even  snap  some  of  the  strings,  so  that  it 
may  no  longer  produce  Its  full-toned  har- 
mony. But  there  are  always  enough  strings 
left  which,  when  struck  by  a  sympathetic 
hand,  will  vibrate  to  the  praise  of  God. 
Men  want  to  be  righteous,  but  an  inflexible 
social  law  often  forces  them  beyond  their 
depth.  Conscience  stiffens  and  the  heart 
hardens,  but  the  hunger  for  God  Is  never 
appeased  until  the  soul  rests  securely  In 
him. 

There  Is  a  pathos  In  this  narrative. 
The  Jews  and  the  Samaritans  were  geo- 
graphical neighbors,  and  more — they  were 
bound  by  the  ties  of  blood,  yet  their  hatred 
of  each  other  has  passed  into  a  proverb; 
even  the  sick  and  helpless  received  no  at- 
tention from  the  other  faction.  The  foun- 
tain of  human  sympathy  had  dried  up  com- 
pletely. But  this  Incident  shows  that  hatred 
is  superficial,  and  that  there  are  great  possi- 
bilities even  in  the  most  degraded;  that  there 
is  a  latent  reservoir  In  every  heart,  no  mat- 
ter how  tightly  locked  by  sin. 

Literally,  the  twentieth  century  needs 
voice  culture  as  well  as  heart  culture.  We 
speak  In  soft  words  to  our  equals  and 
superiors,  but  It  Is   easy  to  mix  Iron  and 

89 


JESUS    CHRIST    IN    HUMAN    EXPERIENCE 

wormwood  when  addressing  the  under 
tenth.  If  we  will  learn  to  put  some  of  the 
softness  of  May  instead  of  the  iciness  of 
December  into  our  conversation,  we  may 
unseal  many  a  frozen  heart  and  let  the  Lord 
Jesus  in.  Just  such  men  have  blessed  the 
world,  plucked,  as  they  were,  brands  from 
the  burning.  There  was  Levi  the  publican; 
and  Saul  was  consenting  unto  Stephen's 
death,  and  he  voted  against  the  Christians 
when  they  came  before  the  Sanhedrin  for 
trial.  The  modern  church  has  its  myriad 
examples.  The  great  sinners  usually  make 
great  Christians. 

II 

It  IS  an  artistic  thing  to  make  a  friend 
out  of  a  man  who,  even  before  he  has  met 
you.  Is  your  avowed  enemy.  Here  is 
where  Jesus  showed  his  genius,  and  it  is 
interesting  to  note  how  he  did  it.  The  fact 
that  he,  a  Jew,  should  speak  to  her,  a 
Samaritaness,  took  her  by  surprise  so  com- 
pletely that  she  clean  forgot  the  ancient 
quarrel  between  the  two  nations.  Aston- 
ished, she  asks:  *TIow  is  it  that  thou, 
being  a  Jew,  askest  drink  of  me,  who  am 
a  woman  of  Samaria?" 

90 


A   SOUL'S   AWAKENING 


"How  Is  It?"  Is  not  this  the  question 
of  all  thoughtful  men?  After  examining 
the  mission  of  Jesus — his  eternal  and  un- 
dying love  for  men  who  cared  not  for 
themselves  nor  their  Creator — their  medi- 
tative query,  tinged  with  surprise,  has 
always  been:  "How  Is  It?"  How  Is  It 
that  heaven  bended  to  earth  and  gave  its 
King  to  bless  an  alien  race  who  mocked 
him,  thorn-crowned  him,  spat  upon  him, 
scourged  him,  crucified  him?  How  Is  It 
that  he  said:  "Father,  forgive  them;  they 
know  not  what  they  do"?  Was  not  the 
whole  life  of  our  Lord  a  series  of  most 
remarkable  surprises,  beginning  with  his 
birth  until  the  time  when  he  was  taken  up? 
It  Is  the  exemplification  of  the  most  amaz- 
ing grace  that  ever  fell  on  the  stony  heart 
of  man.  When  his  murderers  nailed  him 
to  the  cross  he  excused  their  dastardly  deed 
on  the  grounds  of  Ignorance.  Surprise? 
It  has  brought  ten  thousand  men  to  a 
sudden  stop  more  quickly  than  the  burning 
bush  before  Moses.  Our  hands  are  all  the 
same  color — red,  the  evidence  of  guilt — 
yet  his  voice  pleads  gently:  "Wash  you, 
and  make  you  clean.'* 

Before  she  had  time  to  recover,  Jesus 

91 


JESUS    CHRIST    IN    HUMAN    EXPERIENCE 

followed  with  another  striking  sentence: 
*'If  thou  but  knewest."  It  suggested  that 
she  was  missing  something  worth  while, 
and,  if  she  possessed  it,  all  necessity  of 
coming  to  the  well  would  be  obviated.  And 
who  would  not  make  Inquiry?  Jesus  had 
spoken  of  something  that  concerned  her, 
and  his  sentence  Implied  that  he  had  power 
to  transmit  to  her  that  blessing. 

"If  thou  knewest'* — ignorance.  Like 
sheep  without  a  shepherd  men  go  their  way, 
the  way  that  promises  pleasure.  There  has 
been  an  enormous  growth  in  the  amusement 
business  since  the  perfection  of  the  motion 
picture.  Amusement  parks,  cheap  theaters, 
automobiles,  Sunday  excursions  and  such 
have  crowded  the  spiritual  out  of  men's 
lives,  and  when  death  and  calamity  visit 
them  they  have  nothing  upon  which  to  lean. 
Every  pastor  called  to  the  bedside  of  the 
dying  witnesses  over  and  over  again  the 
hurried  preparations  for  death,  and  Is  sick 
at  heart.  No  thought  of  God  until  the 
tongue  begins  to  stiffen  and  the  eye  to  set. 
They  have  never  known  the  gift  of  God. 
And  the  pathos  of  It  all  Is  that  the  friends 
who  stood  at  that  bedside  and  saw  it  all 
win  continue  to  go  about  the  streets — away 

92 


A  SOUL'S   AWAKENING 


from  God.     *'Turn  ye!  turn  ye!  why  will 
ye  die?" 

There  has  been  a  great  deal  spoken  and 
written  about  the  church  in  this  century. 
Some  of  it  comes  from  those  whose  knowl- 
edge of  the  church  is  decidedly  limited,  to 
say  the  least.  A  series  of  such  articles 
recently  appeared  in  a  certain  popular 
weekly.  The  author  showed  that  his 
knowledge  of  church  business — his  subject 
— was  about  as  extensive  as  mine  is  of 
Choctaw.  Had  he  visited  a  few  live 
churches  he  might  have  found  material  for 
a  real  article.  Men  who  view  the  church 
from  the  streets,  literally  and  figuratively, 
should  not  seek  to  be  her  instructor.  She 
is  not  an  entertainer,  not  a  promoter  of 
athletics,  not  a  literary  society.  On  the 
contrary,  she  was  given  a  spiritual  message 
and  commissioned  to  a  spiritual  task.  If 
the  community  in  which  she  is  situated  has 
no  healthful  recreation,  then  let  her  see  to 
it  that  it  is  furnished;  ordinarily  there  are 
other  agencies,  but  she  ought  to  be  able 
to  establish  a  censorship  and  say  what  the 
children  shall  and  shall  not  see.  There 
are  other  things  aside  from  nudity  that 
should  be  taken  out  of  the  motion  picture. 

93 


JESUS    CHRIST    IN    HUMAN    EXPERIENCE 

There  Is  too  much  killing,  too  many  strained 
and  unnatural  scenes. 

The  church,  first  and  last,  ministers  to 
the  souls  of  men.  "But,"  we  are  Informed, 
"they  will  not  come  to  the  churches."  Here 
Is  where  the  church  should  manifest  her 
power.  Is  It  too  much  to  ask  that  all 
places  of  amusement  be  closed  on  the  Lord's 
Day? 

There  are  some  good  Christians  who 
expect  the  preacher  to  be  so  magnetic  In 
presence,  so  fertile  in  plans  and  so  strong 
in  ability  that  he  will  compel  the  people  to 
come  to  the  house  of  the  Lord.  The 
secret  of  the  failure  to  win  is  that  the 
churches  are  not  playing  ball  back  of  their 
preachers.  Give  any  preacher  the  proper 
support  and  he  will  count  on  the  score- 
board. The  world  is  missing  Christianity 
because  of  an  Inactive  church. 

Ill 

Of  all  the  rich  Imagery  of  the  Holy 
Scriptures  there  Is  none  quite  so  vivid  and 
restful  as  the  water  pictures.  The  first 
Psalm  likens  the  righteous  man  to  a  tree 
planted  by  rivers  of  water.  The  Hebrew 
shepherd    led    his    flocks    beside    the    still 

94 


A   SOUL'S   AWAKENING 


waters,  the  waters  of  rest.  By  the  waters 
of  Babylon  the  Hebrew  captives  sat  down 
and  wept.  Palestine  was  not  a  well-watered 
country;  it  had  its  wet  seasons  and  dry. 
The  water  was  conserved  in  cisterns  pre- 
pared for  that  purpose;  living  water  was 
a  luxury.  Naturally,  few  subjects  could 
be  more  interesting  to  a  Palestinian.  It  is 
not  strange,  therefore,  that  Jesus  should 
apply  to  himself  the  title  "water  of  life," 
for  what  figure  could  more  aptly  describe 
what  he  was  to  the  race? 

In  the  Middle  Western  portion  of  the 
United  States  are  those  wide  stretches  of 
semi-desert.  About  the  only  vegetation 
they  support  is  cactus  and  soapweed,  and 
there  is  no  animal  life  save  the  horned 
toad  and  a  wandering  jack-rabbit.  But  at 
intervals  there  are  streams  of  water  of 
varying  volume.  The  Government  has 
sought  out  sites  and  is  building  dams  to 
conserve  the  water  supply.  Then,  as  it  is 
needed,  it  Is  turned  out  over  those  arid 
wastes,  and  then  the  flowers  spring  up 
and  wide  stretches  of  green  fields  and  trees 
— life  In  abundance.  "Living  water."  And 
who  has  not  seen  hundreds  of  lives  barren 
of  any   righteousness   suddenly  become   en- 

95 


JESUS    CHRIST    IN    HUMAN    EXPERIENCE 

riched  by  an  unknown  and  hidden  source 
of  strength?  They  have  found  this  "water 
of  life."  "It  shall  be  within  him  a  well  of 
water  springing  up  unto  eternal  life."  The 
Holy  Spirit  imparts  it;  man  is  connected 
with  God;  God  is  within  him.  It  is  a 
spring  leaping  up  in  rich  abundance  and 
going  forth  to  the  noblest  fulfillment.  It 
was  this  spring  of  water  leaping  with  life 
in  the  heart  of  Paul  that  overflowed  on 
Asia  Minor  and  the  Greek  and  Italian  Pen- 
insulas, leaving  that  growth  of  sturdy  green 
along  their  shores.  It  was  this  water 
springing  up  in  the  hearts  of  the  Reformers 
that  blessed  Germany,  England  and  Scot- 
land with  a  new  civilization,  and  it  came 
with  its  fresh  and  vigorous  tide  to  American 
shores.  It  is  the  water  of  life  in  the  hearts 
of  a  multitude  of  men  and  women  that 
preserves  our  nation  from  the  forces  of 
destruction,  because  there  is  still  a  class  who 
are  exerting  all  their  strength  to  rob  the 
Church  of  her  rights  and  power,  and  are 
using  every  subterfuge  to  nullify  her  influ- 
ence. Eternal  life  is  not  attained  in  some 
far-off  future  period,  but  is  an  immediate 
result — God-given.  The  soul  in  which  liv- 
ing water  flows  has  eternal  life. 

96 


A   SOUL'S   AWAKENING 


O  God,  talk  with  us  by  the  well-curb  of 
life,  that  we  may  open  the  channels  through 
our  waste  and  arid  hearts  and  send  the 
sweetening  floods  surging  over  them.  Bid 
the  desert  blossom  and  the  thirsty  land 
to  become  a  pool,  reflecting  in  its  crystal 
depths  the  trees  and  rushes  on  its  banks, 
where  the  children  of  men  may  rest  and 
gain  strength.  And  from  the  richness  of 
that  abundant  supply  send  the  healing  tide 
forward  among  them,  that  we  may  be  one 
of  those  streams  in  the  desert  that  make 
life's  weary  ones  rejoice. 


97 


VIII 

THE  NOBLEMAN:  DRAWN  OR  DRIVEN 

(John  4:46-54.) 

'l^HE  home  country!  Instantly  the 
'■'  mind  flashes  back  across  the  years 
and  hovers  over  a  spot  the  memory  of 
which  is  as  dear  as  life  and  as  precious  as 
love.  That  spot  may  be  in  the  British 
Isles,  or  on  the  vine-clad  hills  of  France, 
or  on  the  sunny  plains  of  Italy.  More 
likely  it  is  in  America;  but,  wherever  it  is, 
its  memory  is  your  dearest  possession. 

I  recall  a  long,  straight  road,  the  ditch 
by  its  side,  the  golden  images  playing  over 
the  pebbles  in  its  shallow  depths.  I  remem- 
ber the  tall,  graceful  elms,  the  smooth- 
trunked  beeches,  the  sturdy  oak  and  the 
rough  hickory  which  stood  in  the  woods 
hard  by.  After  a  quarter  of  a  century  I 
can  still  hear  the  notes  of  the  thrush  and 
the  bobolink  as  they  made  melody  in  the 
cool  shadows  of  the  forest.  There  still 
lingers  the  odor  of  Mayflowers,  of  bursting 

98 


THE   NOBLEMAN:   DRAWN   OR   DRIVEN 

buds,  of  damp  moss;  the  orchard,  the 
meadow,  the  fresh  breeze.  I  can  see  the 
tiger-HlIes  and  the  raspberry-bushes  that 
grew  along  the  fences.  I  remember  the 
dim,  grass-grown  path,  and  how  I  followed 
it  until  it  was  lost  in  the  woodland.  I  can 
still  hear  the  faint  tinkle  of  the  cowbells, 
and  am  conscious  of  the  growing  darkness 
and  the  fear  that  rises  in  a  boy's  heart  when 
the  cows  are  not  yet  home !  I  can  hear  the 
schoolbell  ring — a  peculiar  note  which  I 
have  never  discovered  in  any  other  bell. 
I  remember  the  day  my  mother  took  me  in 
her  arms  and  gave  me  her  blessing,  and 
we  said  "Good-by."  The  memory  of  it 
all  lingers  like  incense  in  a  holy  place. 

We  can  not  return  to  the  scenes  of  the 
past,  save  over  that  dim,  enchanted  path- 
way of  recollection.  If  in  body  we  go  back 
to  those  scenes,  they  are  all  so  sadly 
changed;  the  stranger  is  everywhere.  We 
greet  him  under  the  name  of  the  chum  of 
boyhood;  we  fished  together,  romped  to- 
gether, tramped  the  woods  together,  but 
he  IS  a  stranger  now.  We  have  grown 
away  from  them;  the  years  have  made  their 
unalterable  changes.  There  Is  one  sweet 
thought:    we     are    growing    toward    our 

99 


JESUS    CHRIST    IN    HUMAN    EXPERIENCE 

Father's  house,  the  soul's  everlasting  home. 
Jesus    had    returned    to    his    childhood 
home ;  he  had  come  back  to  Galilee. 

I 

It  Is  remarkable  how  quickly  a  man's 
viewpoint  changes.  Self-centered,  pleasure- 
bent,  business-enthralled,  until  calamity  or 
illness  threaten,  then  how  quickly  he  sees 
something  else. 

"There  was  a  certain  king's  officer" — 
probably  an  underling  of  Herod  Antipas. 
The  Herodian  family  was  famous  through- 
out the  world  as  rulers,  and  any  one  who 
held  an  office  under  their  regime  was  also 
possessed  with  a  certain  distinction  and 
dignity.  Clothed  In  the  official  uniform  and 
bearing  the  Insignia  of  his  office,  he  was 
one  of  the  dignitaries  of  that  famous 
dynasty. 

But  Sickness  regards  not  the  gold-laced 
uniform,  nor  the  marble-tiled  floors,  nor 
the  silken  draperies  of  the  rich.  He  slides 
past  the  granite  pillars  and  through  the 
golden  doorway  of  the  wealthy  as  easily 
as  through  the  broken  panes  of  the  poor. 
He  as  boldly  accosts  the  aristocrat  as  the 
beggar  at  his  gate.     He  blows  his  breath 

100 


THE    NOBLEMAN:    DRAWN    OR    DRIVEN 

alike  into  the  face  of  the  prince  and  the 
child  of  the  pauper.  He  is  no  respecter 
of  persons.  "Dignity"  struts  the  street 
and  men  fawn  before  him  and  kiss  their 
hands  to  him,  but  Disease  hath  neither  ear 
to  hear,  nor  eye  to  see,  nor  heart,  to  regard, 
nor  conscience  to  accuse. 

What  pathos  in  the  appeal:  "Come 
down  ere  my  son  die."  Are  you  a  father 
and  have  you  a  son?  Do  you  not  catch 
the  terrible  tug  and  strain  in  those  last 
four  words:  "Ere  my  son  die"?  "My  son;" 
a  father's  hopes  were  languishing  with 
fever.  He  was  not  concerned  in  the  least 
about  the  dignity  of  his  position;  one  great 
desire  possessed  him. 

Capernaum  was  on  the  shores  of  Gal- 
ilee. It  was  the  chief  city  of  northern 
Palestine,  the  center  of  government  and 
therefore  of  importance.  Cities  of  size 
get  the  habit  of  looking  rather  condescend- 
ingly upon  the  humbler  towns  and  villages. 
Capernaum  was  the  city;  Nazareth  was 
the  town.  Galileans,  as  a  whole,  did  not 
bear  a  very  good  reputation.  They  were 
crude  and  uncultured;  the  classic  Hebrew 
abode  not  in  them.  Instead,  they  spoke  a 
rough,    coarse    dialect,    and    they    were    in 

101 


JESUS    CHRIST    IN    HUMAN    EXPERIENCE 

contact  with  the  Gentiles.  They  were  to 
the  Jews  what  the  Boeotians  were  to  the 
Athenians.  True,  Capernaum  was  in  Gal- 
ilee, but  Capernaum  was  a  city!  The 
^'king's  officer"  was  from  Capernaum,  and 
Jesus  was  from  Nazareth.  Had  not  Na- 
thanael  already  voiced  the  popular  opinion: 
*'Can  any  good  thing  come  out  of  Naza- 
reth?"? How  strong,  therefore,  must  have 
been  the  prejudice  of  this  influential  Hero- 
dian  officer  against  seeking  aid  of  this 
itinerant  Galilean  preacher. 

If  Jesus  came  in  personal  contact  with 
men  to-day,  many  might  call  him  a  "sensa- 
tionalist," an  "incendiary,"  or  maybe  "an- 
archist." Theologians  would  call  his  teach- 
ing unsafe,  heterodox,  and  accuse  him  of 
heresy.  They  would  brand  his  miracles  as 
tricks  of  an  impostor.  How  do  we  know? 
Because  that  is  the  way  the  "leaders"  have 
always  treated  the  benefactors  of  the  race. 
One  generation  crucifies;  the  next  canonizes. 
It  is  easy  to  hold  such  prejudices  so  long 
as  health  and  prosperity  continue;  neither 
is  it  difficult  to  poke  fun  and  sneer  at  the 
beliefs  of  others.  Those  mockers  at  Pente- 
cost who  said,  "These  men  are  full  of  new 
wine,**  were  not  the  first  and  certainly  not 

102 


THE   NOBLEMAN:   DRAWN   OR   DRIVEN 

the  last  to  jeer  at  a  faith  which  was  to 
them  impossible. 

But  alas  for  our  prejudice  I  It  too 
often  bars  the  door  and  shuts  us  away  from 
the  chambers  of  blessing,  yet  none  of  us 
are  entirely  free  from  it.  Those  loudest 
in  their  protestations  of  *'breadth"  and 
^'liberality  of  view"  are  usually  the  most 
intolerant.  Prejudice  is  a  fiend  from  the 
netherworld.  He  bears  a  subtle  poison 
not  intended  primarily  for  the  ear  and 
tongue,  but  for  the  sight,  and  through  it 
he  affects  the  whole  sensibilities.  He  "sets 
on  fire  the  wheel  of  nature,"  until  the  ear 
hears  falsely  and  the  tongue  speaks  perverse 
things.  One  drop  of  it  in  the  eye  and  the 
ocean  is  no  longer  green,  but  red.  Under 
its  devilish  alchemy  the  crystalline  white- 
ness of  truth  fades  into  the  dunnest  gray; 
the  straight  becomes  crooked,  and  the  most 
sincere  righteousness  tinctured  with  sinister 
motives. 

But  a  great  need  has  a  wonderfully 
neutralizing  power  upon  it.  When  the 
certain  death  of  his  son  stared  him  In  the 
face  this  nobleman  forgot  his  dignified  office, 
forgot  his  prejudices,  forgot  that  Jesus  was 
a  Galilean,  a  Nazarene,  forgot  what  men 

103 


JESUS    CHRIST    IN    HUMAN    EXPERIENCE 

might  say.  What  cared  he  for  public  com- 
ment if  his  son  were  only  saved?  He 
probably  knew  of  the  miracle  at  Cana,  and 
there  may  have  reached  him  some  tidings 
of  the  signs  done  in  Jerusalem,  hence  he 
reasoned:  "Cannot  this  man  who  changed 
the  water  into  wine,  and  who  cleansed  the 
temple,  make  my  son  whole?"  "Come  down 
ere  my  son  die." 

Calamity  does  another  thing;  It  punc- 
tures pride.  Calamity  and  self-esteem  can 
not  ride  in  the  same  vehicle.  This  man 
said  nothing  to  Jesus  about  being  a  king^s 
officer.  There  was  no  letter  of  introduc- 
tion, no  formality,  no  red  tape;  he  went 
straight  to  the  point;  he  cared  for  nothing 
else.  And,  after  all,  our  social  standing, 
our  R.  G.  Dun  rating,  the  amount  of  stocks 
and  bonds  we  own,  or  the  amount  of  money 
we  are  able  to  borrow  on  our  signature, 
does  not  count  very  much  with  the  Lord. 
In  his  hands  are  all  the  corners  of  the 
earth;  all  men  appear  before  him  on  the 
same  level.  Jesus  Christ  died  for  our  sins 
because  we  needed  him;  let  us,  therefore, 
be  humble  and  come  to  him  for  his  blessing 
and  help. 


104 


THE   NOBLEMAN:    DRAWN    OR    DRIVEN 


II 

He  came  to  Jesus  as  the  last  resort;  he 
waited  until  the  "child  was  at  the  point  of 
death."  He  probably  tried  the  physicians 
in  Capernaum,  the  best  of  them;  but  the 
child  grew  worse,  and  death  was  rapidly 
approaching.  He  sought  Jesus  as  the  last 
resort. 

For  two  thousand  years  human  nature 
has  run  along  in  the  same  old  groove.  Men 
wring  the  last  drop  of  sweetness  out  of 
every  pleasure;  they  pursue  their  commer- 
cial activities  until  nothing  remains  but  the 
dried  pods  of  threescore  and  ten  selfish 
years;  they  ride  on  the  Icarian  wings  of 
fame  until  the  last  feather  falls,  and  then 
they  turn  to  Jesus  because  "the  child  is  at 
the  point  of  death."  He  who  sells  for  a 
mess  of  earth's  pottage  the  service  due  to 
Christ  and  his  fellow-men  is  worse  than 
the  "meanest  man"  the  newspapers  have 
yet  discovered. 

When  one  reads  of  that  early  company 
of  enthusiastic  believers  in  Jesus  Christ, 
and  how  they  started  out  to  proclaim  life 
through  his  name,  he  will  stop  and  dream 
of  the  glorious  history  the   Church  might 

105 


JESUS    CHRIST    IN    HUMAN    EXPERIENCE 

have  had  if  she  had  kept  the  primitive  faith. 
What  a  thrilling  volume  Church  history 
would  have  been,  were  it  simply  the  record 
of  the  expanding  Kingdom  instead  of  the 
quarrels  between  bishops  and  emperors. 
One  does  not  read  very  far  until  he  is 
aware  that  "Satan  came  also."  Division 
has  robbed  the  Church  of  her  strength, 
and,  instead  of  pages  that  glow  with  the 
Spirit's  power,  there  is  the  shameless  record 
of  strife  and  hatred.  It  is  to  the  shame 
of  the  Church  that  she  has  not  Christian- 
ized the  world  during  these  twenty  cen- 
turies. "My  son  lieth  at  the  point  of 
death;"  the  world  is  sick.  Ten  thousand 
remedies  have  been  applied,  but  the  spiritual 
pulse  flutters,  the  tongue  is  coated,  the 
breath  is  foul.  She  has  not  poured  in  the 
oil  and  wine,  nor  has  she  bound  up  the 
wounds  of  humanity  whom  sin  has  assaulted 
and  robbed  and  left  to  die.  And  she  never 
will  until  she  reunites  her  severed  body, 
gathers  her  children  under  one  banner,  and 
moves  as  a  solid  army.  At  present  she  is 
using  too  much  of  her  strength  to  run  her 
machinery,  instead  of  converting  the  world 
to  Christ.  Wise  men  are  seeing  this  and 
are  pleading  for  a  united  Church,  that  the 

106 


'   THE  NOBLEMAN:   DRAWN   OR   DRIVEN 

Church  may  save  herself  in  order  that  she 
may  save  the  world.  The  Church  is  there- 
fore coming  to  Christ  as  the  last  resort.  She 
has  been  to  Rome  and  Constantinople;  she 
has  been  to  Wittenberg  and  Geneva;  let  us 
hope  that  she  is  on  her  final  and  triumphant 
journey  to  Jerusalem.  Pray  God  we  soon 
arrive ! 

There  are  many  men  to  whom  the  pos- 
session of  authority  is  more  intoxicating 
than  absinthe.  It  puffs  them  up  in  their 
own  estimation  until  they  think  they  are 
the  flywheel  of  all  creation,  and,  were  they 
to  withdraw,  the  universe  would  perish  and 
*'leave  not  a  wrack  behind.'*  Jesus  was 
the  only  being  that  ever  trod  this  earth 
In  whom  all  power  dwelt.  We  are  help- 
less, finite  beings,  and  can  not  change  one 
hair  from  black  to  white.  God  Is  all  In 
all,  and  when  misfortune  and  calamity  over- 
take us  we  realize  how  small  we  are  and 
how  great  Is  our  dependence  upon  him. 

It  Is  a  sad  commentary  upon  human 
intelligence  that  men  have  to  be  driven  to 
Christ  by  the  rod  of  affliction — men  who 
boast  of  their  superior  understanding.  Like 
the  little  bird  In  the  story  who  balanced 
himself  on  the  edge  of  the  nest  day  after 

107 


JESUS    CHRIST    IN    HUMAN    EXPERIENCE 

day  and  boastfully  declared  what  he  would 
do,  until  one  luckless  day  he  overbalanced 
and  the  cat  seized  him.  Before  he  was 
rescued  he  had  a  broken  wing,  and  when 
the  other  nestlings  flew  he  was  left  behind. 

"But  man,  proud  man, 
Drest  in  a  little  brief  authority, 
Most  ignorant  of  what  he's  most  assured, 
His  glassy  essence,  like  an  angry  ape. 
Plays  such  fantastic  tricks  before  high  heaven 
As  makes  the  angels  weep." 

Ill 

^'Except  ye  see  signs  and  wonders,  ye 
will  not  believe."  Archbishop  Trench  con- 
cludes that  this  petitioner  was  driven  to 
Jesus  by  the  constraint  of  an  outward  need 
rather  than  drawn  by  the  inner  necessities 
and  desires  of  his  soul. 

Driven  to  Jesus!  It  may  be  that  men 
get  some  good  out  of  an  enforced  service, 
but  certainly  it  is  not  an  ideal  relationship. 
Every  pastor  is  forced  to  the  conclusion 
that  a  great  many  men  and  women  become 
Christians  in  much  the  same  spirit  as  they 
take  out  fire  insurance;  they  seem  to  think 
church  membership  is  an  assurance  against 
loss.  Hence  they  pay  the  smallest  premium 
rate — no   more.      The   fear   of  punishment 

108 


THE   NOBLEMAN;    DRAWN    OR    DRIVEN 

is  the  whip  behind  that  drives  them  to 
Christ;  they  serve  through  fear,  the  basest 
of  all  motives.  Were  it  removed,  they 
would  have  little  use  for  Christ  or  the 
Church.  We  may  well  question  whether 
that  is  Christianity  at  all.  Certainly  it  has 
none  of  the  essential  elements  of  the  Mas- 
ter's teaching.  The  man  who  works  for 
his  country  with  a  ball  and  chain  attached 
to  his  leg  and  an  armed  guard  over  him 
can  not  be  called  a  patriot,  nor  Is  he  a  Chris- 
tian who  serves  through  fear. 

But  there  is  that  other  motive.  If  fear 
of  punishment  drives  some,  there  are  others 
that  are  drawn  to  God  through  love.  The 
two  motives  are  at  opposite  poles.  We 
will  never  have  a  strong  Church  so  long 
as  men  serve  God  to  keep  out  of  hell-fire. 
Such  a  Church  is  a  band  of  time-servers. 
The  theology  of  the  Middle  Ages  smoked 
with  fire  and  sputtered  with  brimstone;  it 
rang  with  the  cries  of  the  damned.  The 
thunderbolts  of  the  Almighty  were  aimed 
at  the  man  who  dared  wear  buttons  on  his 
waistcoat  Instead  of  hooks  and  eyes  !  People 
sat  in  their  churches  and  shivered  at  the 
terror  of  the  Lord.  He  was  the  greatest 
preacher  whose  language  was  the  hottest. 

109 


JESUS    CHRIST    IN    HUMAN    EXPERIENCE 

They    invented    a    devil    as    large    as    the 

Colossus  of  Rhodes,  and  made  him 

"Skelp  and  scaud  poor  dogs  like  me 
And  hear  us  squeel  !'* 

There  is  a  hell;  it  begins  on  earth,  as 
does  eternal  life.  Take  the  drug  away 
from  the  drug  fiend  and  you  will  witness 
tortures  of  the  damned  more  vivid  and 
awful  than  Dante  ever  dreamed  of  putting 
on  paper,  or  Dore  on  canvas.  Place  such 
a  man  before  the  throne  of  God  and  he 
would  still  be  in  hell. 

The  joy  of  being  a  Christian  is  feeling 
that  mystic  and  holy  power  of  the  love  of 
Christ  drawing  us  to  him.  He  died  for 
the  world,  for  the  freedom  of  men;  died 
to  give  them  life.  We  love  him  because 
he  first  loved  us.  Jesus  never  said  either 
in  words  or  in  substance,  "Come  unto  me 
or  I  will  destroy  you,"  but  he  did  say: 
*'Come  unto  me,  all  ye  that  labor  and 
are  heavy  laden,  and  I  will  give  you  rest." 

Those  Samaritans,  whose  land  Jesus 
had  just  quitted,  believed  on  him  because 
of  his  words;  they  did  not  require  a  sign. 
True  greatness  of  heart  was  theirs.  Chris- 
tianity is  an  attractive  force;  Jesus  is  a 
magnetic  personality.    Let  the  Church  hold 

110 


THE   NOBLEMAN:   DRAWN   OR   DRIVEN 

out  the  stronger  motive  and  not  attempt  to 
drive  men  into  the  Kingdom  of  love. 

O  eternal  God,  we  thank  thee  for  the 
tenderness  of  Jesus;  that  human  relation- 
ships made  a  powerful  appeal  to  him.  He 
was  never  more  himself  than  when  standing 
by  the  open  tomb  of  his  friend,  or  by  the 
side  of  the  dead,  or  in  the  presence  of  the 
suffering.  He  has  always  been  the  Balm 
for  our  sorrows,  and  our  Comforter  when 
in  distress.  Let  us,  therefore,  learn  his  two 
great  words  ''love"  and  "rest."  We  pray 
that  we  shall  not  think  too  dearly  of  our 
earthly  relationships  nor  mourn  too  deeply 
when  they  are  broken,  but,  rather,  that 
back  of  the  physical  eye  and  the  human 
heart  should  be  that  mighty  confidence  in 
God  and  his  blessed  Son,  whose  salvation  is 
unto  the  everlasting  ages,  where  human  re- 
lationships shall  not  only  be  renewed,  but 
intensified  and  glorified. 


Ill 


IX 

THE  BORDER  OF  HIS  GARMENT 

(Mark  5  ••25-34-) 

T^  RAGEDY!  Can  you  place  your  hand 
anywhere  on  the  social  body  and  not 
be  conscious  of  its  convulsive  sob?  Trag- 
edy is  death's  living  self.  It  may  dwell 
across  the  hall  from  your  apartment,  on 
the  adjoining  farm,  in  your  own  home.  The 
poor,  misshapen  bodies  that  drag  them- 
selves about  the  streets,  the  still  more  mis- 
shapen intellects  with  scarce  a  semblance 
of  mentality,  the  dead  love  in  living  bodies, 
the  blasted  hopes — all,  all  are  tragedies; 
and  what  home  is  free  from  them?  Every 
acquaintance  is  a  paradox;  you  know  him, 
and  yet  you  are  as  ignorant  of  him  as  if 
the  diameter  of  the  earth  were  between  you. 
You  know  well  his  comedies,  because  laugh- 
ter will  out;  but  not  his  tragedies,  because 
sorrow  is  that  ominous  bird  of  night  which 
seeks  the  silent  chambers  of  the  soul.  Does 
your  heart  hold  a  tragedy? 

112 


THE  BORDER  OF  HIS  GARMENT 

Was  this  woman  unfortunate?  Yes. 
Are  you  sure?  What  would  you  give  to 
know  Christ  as  she  knew  him — twelve 
years?  Had  it  not  been  for  that  long- 
standing infirmity,  she  would  never  have 
had  thrice  mention  in  the  sacred  narrative; 
nor  would  she  have  known  the  Lord.  '*Mis- 
fortune"  may  be  God's  way  of  spelling 
"blessing." 


She  was  '^healed  of  her  plague."  This 
was  the  greatest  moment  in  the  life  of  this 
woman.  She  had  suffered  much;  she  enjoys 
much.  The  ravages  of  the  disease  were 
stayed  and  she  was  a  new  creature  physi- 
cally. 

And  this  is  what  Christ  does  spiritually 
for  his  followers;  he  heals  them;  he  makes 
of  them  new  creatures,  which  is  a  greater 
work  than  healing  the  body.  To  think 
that  he  takes  these  palsied  souls,  these  sin- 
soaked  and  corroded  hearts  which  have 
scarcely  strength  enough  to  reach  out  their 
hands  and  touch  him;  to  think  that  he  not 
only  stops  the  ravages  of  sin,  but  that  he 
renews  our  souls  and  makes  them  whole 
again — is  past  human  comprehension.     He 

8  113 


JESUS    CHRIST    IN    HUMAN    EXPERIENCE 

brings  us  at  last  before  him  perfect  in  soul 
and  spirit,  and  this  is  more  wonderful  than 
to  be  whole  in  body.  There  are  in  every 
congregation  scores  of  individuals  who 
know  this  power  and  who  walk  among  their 
fellows  as  splendid  examples  of  men  who 
have  been  healed  of  their  plague. 

But  has  not  the  social  body  suffered 
many  things  of  many  physicians?  And  is 
it  in  a  way  to  be  healed?  Its  afflictions 
are  legion.  It  has  bruises  which  need  bind- 
ing up,  ulcers  that  need  cleansing,  abscesses 
that  need  the  surgeon's  lance.  Society  has 
yet  to  touch  the  border  of  Christ's  gar- 
ment. The  Will  is  weak  and  the  multitude 
dense.  But  what  is  the  Will  in  society,  that 
Will  that  thrusts  men  toward  the  Christ? 
Can  it  be  other  than  the  Church?  Is  there 
any  other  institution  that  is  seeking  to 
create  an  impulse  toward  the  Christ?  As 
part  of  the  social  body,  this  is  the  Church's 
mission  and  therefore  her  duty,  and,  if  she 
fails  to  do  it,  she  is  in  danger  of  being 
"spued  out  of  his  mouth."  This  century 
is  placing  the  severest  tests  upon  the  Church 
that  she  has  ever  faced.  She  can  not  quiet 
the  struggles  of  society  by  medieval  potions, 
by  Old  World  forms  and  ceremonies.     She 

114 


THE  BORDER  OF  HIS  GARMENT 

must  not  attempt  to  restrain  this  mighty, 
pent-up  force.     It  must  find  expression. 

The  last  thing  this  century  needs,  and 
the  last  thing  it  will  accept,  is  an  ecclesias- 
ticism.  This  is  a  bogey  to  frighten  the 
innocent.  This  age  wants  to  be  healed  of 
its  plague — plague  of  narrowness  and  big- 
otry, plague  of  Catholic  and  Protestant 
priestcraft,  plague  of  division,  plague  of 
churchianity.  It  refuses  to  be  bound  by 
any  such.  It  insists  on  a  religion  that  feeds 
the  hunger  in  men's  souls.  Rosaries  and 
crucifixes  may  have  had  a  place  in  the  ages 
before  the  Renaissance,  but  this  century 
demands,  above  all  things  else,  freedom. 
If  the  Church  refuses  to  give  it,  men  will 
take  it.  It  is  theirs  by  right.  Any  organ- 
ization or  institution  that  restricts  mental 
and  spiritual  freedom  is  something  quite 
different  from  the  Christianity  of  Jesus. 
He  binds  upon  them  no  fetters,  or  with- 
holds from  them  no  truth,  but  leads  the 
way  to  its  sublime  heights. 

II 

There  is  no  superstitious  significance  to 
be  attached  to  the  person  of  Jesus.  Ten 
thousand  people  thronged  him,  yet  none  felt 

115 


JESUS    CHRIST    IN    HUMAN    EXPERIENCE 

the  electric  current  flash  out  of  his  body  save 
this  unfortunate  woman.  When  in  any  age, 
particularly  ours,  the  battered  and  bruised, 
the  heart-broken  and  the  sorrowing,  touch 
the  Christ,  his  power  is  exerted  in  their 
behalf;  for  Jesus  walks  among  the  crowds 
of  men  to-day;  they  are  all  about  him. 
Though  men  throng  him,  they  get  nothing 
from  him  because  they  come  without  pur- 
pose. They  do  not  "ask,"  hence  they  do 
not  "receive."  To  them  Jesus  Is  nothing 
more  than  a  cunning  trickster,  an  interesting 
teacher,  a  superenthusiastic  reformer;  they 
fail  to  sound  in  any  way  the  depths  of  the 
mighty  purpose  that  thrust  him  forth  from 
the  bosom  of  the  Father.  They  are  cynical; 
they  call  for  a  sign.  Blind  fools !  would 
they  know  a  sign  were  one  given  them? 
Are  there  not  signs  In  abundance  all  about 
us?  In  every  blade  of  grass  that  struggles 
upward,  In  every  leaf  that  flutters  In  the 
summer  breeze,  in  every  glistening  star.  In 
every  beating  heart;  but,  having  eyes,  they 
see  not;  minds,  yet  they  do  not  comprehend. 
The  Master  taught  that  there  Is  a  class 
like  unto  grunting  swine;  before  them  cast 
no  pearls. 

So    of    all    this    multitude    that    surged 

116 


THE  BORDER  OF  HIS  GARMENT 

about  Him  none  save  this  woman  were 
blessed.  There  was  the  big  tradesman 
from  Capernaum  who  rubbed  shoulders 
with  Jesus  as  they  walked;  there  was  the 
priest  and  the  Levite,  the  scribe  and  the 
Pharisee,  who  brushed  his  garments,  yet  no 
power  went  forth  from  him.  But  when 
this  woman,  who  knew  her  only  chance  of 
health  was  passing,  touched  one  of  the 
tassels  of  his  garment,  soundness  came  to 
her  immediately. 

I  have  thought  that  the  poor  and  lowly 
come  into  more  vital  contact  with  Jesus 
Christ  than  those  in  more  comfortable  cir- 
cumstances. Wealth  enjoys  the  glow  of  its 
own  fireside,  the  comfort  of  its  own  dwell- 
ing; it  enjoys  a  smug  satisfaction  in  all  that 
it  possesses.  The  scholar  digs  into  the 
musty  lore  of  the  past  and  is  never  so  happy 
as  when,  lens  in  hand,  he  is  scrutinizing  a 
faded  manuscript,  searching  for  missing  jots 
and  tittles;  but  he  is  in  grave  danger  of 
becoming  absorbed  in  the  mechanics  of 
religion  rather  than  catching  the  spirit  of 
Christ.  But  the  man  of  humble  position  is 
not  interested  in  the  grammatical  construc- 
tion of  the  text;  it  is  sufficient  for  him  as 
it   is,    and    by   his    flickering   lamp    in    his 

117 


JESUS    CHRIST    IN    HUMAN    EXPERIENCE 

meagerly  furnished  room  he  touches,  with- 
out barrier,  the  border  of  His  garment  and 
is  renewed  in  heart  and  soul. 

That  this  woman  was  healed  is  a  won- 
derful thing,  but  it  is  even  more  wonderful 
that  Jesus  knew  that  "power  proceeding 
from  him  had  gone  forth."  How  close 
Christ  stands  to  the  heart-throbs  of  human- 
ity, and  how  thoroughly  he  enters  into  its 
experiences.  He  loves  individuals  for  their 
own  sakes,  and  through  them  he  would 
leaven  the  whole  mass.  Because  we  can 
not  fathom  the  mysteries  and  solve  the 
riddles  of  existence  is  no  reason  why  we 
should  doubt,  or  spend  much  time  in  asking 
*'Why?"  He  who  says,  "My  Father 
knows,"  and  leaves  the  hard  places  to  be 
explained  on  the  other  side  of  the  grave, 
will  avoid  a  great  many  dark  hours  and 
will  be  infinitely  happier  than  he  who  re- 
fuses to  cross  the  river  because  he  does 
not  understand  the  action  of  the  gasoline 
motor. 

Ill 

There  is  something  about  the  very 
name  of  Jesus  that  calls  to  the  heart  of  the 
sufferer.      It    is    like    sweet    balm    to    his 

118 


THE  BORDER  OF  HIS  GARMENT 

bruises  and  soothing  oil  to  his  wounds. 
Jesus!  To  know  him  brings  luster  to  the 
eye  and  hope  to  the  breast.  Oh,  why  do 
men  insist  on  looking  at  him  through  the 
dust  and  mists  and  cobwebs  of  twenty  long 
centuries,  when  his  magnificent  personality 
is  among  us  as  fresh  and  vigorous  as  that 
morning  he  stood  by  the  Sea  of  Galilee 
and  said:  "Children,  have  ye  any  meat?"? 
He  is  nearer  than  breathing,  nearer  than 
hands  and  feet.  Our  knowledge  of  him 
must  be  something  more  than  the  dry  facts 
the  printed  page  conveys.  If  we  will  open 
the  door,  he  will  come  in  and  dwell  with 
us,  bringing  that  wholesome  light  from 
which  the  demons  flee  and  in  which  the 
messengers  of  God  delight. 

Who  can  not  catch  the  last  mighty  tug 
of  her  will  as  she  summoned  her  body  to 
one  final  effort?  Out  of  the  embers  of  her 
dying  self  the  new  Phoenix  struggled  itself 
free,  and  hope  blossomed  red  when  the 
Saviour  of  the  world  drew  near.  By  sheer 
force  of  will  she  drove  her  weakened  body 
into  the  thoughtless  throng  at  the  risk  of 
being  trampled  under  their  feet,  for  she 
had  not  the  strength  to  battle  against  them, 
but  death  was  preferable  to  the  miserable 

119 


JESUS    CHRIST    IN    HUMAN    EXPERIENCE 

existence  which  had  been  hers.  The  rebuffs, 
the  taunts,  the  remonstrances  and  even  the 
insults  of  the  multitude  were  nothing  to 
her,  for  she  had  that  sublime  confidence  in 
Him  who  was  its  central  figure  that  he 
would  not  rebuke  her,  and  that  he  somehow 
would  help  her. 

And  herein  is  revealed  the  mighty 
pathos  of  the  Incurable.  Men  clutch  at 
life  with  such  tenacity,  and  when  disease 
begins  its  progress  they  fight  it  most  bitterly. 
What  remedies  they  seek!  What  physi- 
cians they  employ!  What  beliefs  they 
espouse!  They  want  physical  soundness; 
they  want  to  be  rid  of  the  blight.  Mark 
gives  the  old,  old  picture  so  familiar  to 
every  pastor  and  Christian  worker.  Note 
his  words:  *'She  had  suffered  many  things 
of  many  physicians,  and  had  spent  all  that 
she  had,  and  was  nothing  bettered,  but 
rather  grew  worse."  That  unceasing  round 
which  the  sufferer  makes  to  the  allopath, 
the  homeopath,  the  osteopath,  until  she 
"had  spent  all  that  she  had.''  The  prodigal 
son  spent  all  his  substance  in  the  pursuit 
of  pleasure;  this  woman  spent  hers  in 
search  of  health. 

Did  you  ever  know  any  one  who  did 

120 


THE  BORDER  OF  HIS  GARMENT 

not  have  a  remedy  for  any  disease,  or  who 
did  not  know  the  very  physician  "you  ought 
to  see"?  Any  one  will  tell  you  exactly 
what  to  do,  and  the  invalid  does  it!  He 
goes  from  "regulars"  to  "quacks,"  from 
"quacks"  to  "patent  medicines,"  and  from 
"patent  medicines"  to  the  grave.  It  is 
pathetic,  this  search  for  a  remedy. 

But  there  is  something  more  pathetic. 
Men  are  driven  into  a  panic  when  their 
bodies  are  attacked,  but  they  are  not  in  the 
least  alarmed  when  sin  Is  consuming  their 
souls.  If  they  are  tubercular,  they  will 
mortgage  their  homes,  sacrifice  their  prop- 
erty and  flee  to  the  Southwest;  but  they 
will  be  absent  from  the  house  of  God 
months  at  a  time,  they  will  neglect  the 
reading  of  their  Bibles,  they  will  allow  the 
most  trivial  things  to  keep  them  from 
doing  their  Christian  duties,  and  yet  not  be 
In  the  least  uneasy  about  It.  They  will 
spend  all  their  "living"  upon  their  sick 
bodies,  but  not  a  dollar,  not  an  hour,  upon 
their  sick  souls.  This  was  the  condition 
that  wrenched  these  pathetic  words  from 
the  lips  of  Jesus:  "Ye  will  not  come  to  me 
that  ye  may  have  life." 

O  God,  our  souls  are  famished  and  our 

121 


JESUS    CHRIST    IN    HUMAN    EXPERIENCE 

Spiritual  vitality  low.  Urge  our  wills  into 
activity  that  we  may  touch  thy  blessed  Son 
■ — even  the  fringes  of  his  garment.  The 
weary  years  have  dragged  themselves  past 
and  we  have  spent  our  energy,  our  living, 
upon  other  things  and  are  nothing  bene- 
fited. In  thee  all  power  dwelleth.  Baptize 
with  thy  radiant  Spirit  our  poor,  corroded 
souls,  that  we  may  be  whole  again  and 
glorify  thy  holy  name. 


122 


THE  TRAGEDY  OF  OPPORTUNITY 

(Mark  lo:  17-22.) 

TF  there  was  a  tragedy  in  the  life  of  that 
woman  who  for  twelve  years  had  been 
so  greatly  afflicted,  what  is  this  which  Mark 
here  records?  It  is  a  terrible  thing  when 
the  body  is  unable  to  perform  its  functions 
— when  a  healthy  mind  is  compelled  to 
sojourn  in  a  tabernacle  wholly  inadequate 
for  the  burdens  placed  upon  it.  But  it  is 
a  great  deal  more  serious  when  the  body 
is  strong  and  the  mind  lacks  the  necessary 
power  to  grasp  a  great  opportunity  and 
move  into  the  promised  land.  There  is 
the  old  story  of  the  man  who  trapped  mon- 
keys by  boring  a  hole  In  a  small  cask 
which  he  filled  partially  full  of  sugar.  The 
hole  was  large  enough  for  the  monkey  to 
slip  his  hand  through,  but  he  could  not 
withdraw  it  after  he  had  tightened  on  a 
handful  of  sugar,  and  he  was  too  greedy 
to  let  go.      So  with  men:   they   get  their 

123 


JESUS    CHRIST    IN    HUMAN    EXPERIENCE 

hands  full  of  earthly  things,  the  seemingly 
sweet  things,  and  when  a  greater  oppor- 
tunity comes  they  can  not  grasp  it  without 
first  letting  go,  and  this  they  find  very 
difficult  to  do. 

It  has  been  urged  by  some  that  it  Is 
an  easy  thing  to  follow  Jesus  Christ.  The 
great  Master  never  said  so,  nor  did  any 
of  his  disciples.  On  the  contrary,  he  taught 
precisely  the  opposite:  that  his  followers 
would  make  foes  of  their  own  households; 
that  they  would  be  called  to  leave  homes, 
houses  and  lands;  that  a  man  must  deny 
himself  and  take  up  his  cross  daily.  There 
are  many  who  think  they  are  following 
Christ  when  they  are  simply  in  the  rabble 
that  throngs  him.  When  he  gives  them 
a  hard  saying  they  depart,  for,  like  Demas, 
they  love  the  present  world.  Christ  taught 
that  his  way  is  strait  and  narrow,  and 
this  young  man  was  honest  enough  not  to 
attempt  what  he  felt  he  could  not  perform. 


How  refreshing  is  youth!  It  has  yet 
to  feel  the  cold  rock  that  bars  its  progress, 
or  crushes  the  life  out  of  those  upon  whom 
It  chances  to  fall;  It  has  not  yet  seen  the 

124 


THE   TRAGEDY    OF    OPPORTUNITY 

smile  of  the  sophisticated  nor  heard  the 
retort  of  the  cynical;  neither  has  it  met 
that  despicable  person  who  accepts*  respon- 
sibihty  and  refuses  to  perform  its  functions. 
Youth  sees  only  a  clear  sky;  youth  has 
superlative  confidence  in  its  own  ability; 
youth  has  never  even  heard  that  there  may 
be  lions  in  the  way.  Would  God  we  might 
always  be  youthful !  But  a  few  years 
among  the  crafty  sons  of  Belial  teach  even 
a  righteous  man  not  only  not  to  spread  his 
pearls  before  swine,  but  to  proceed  before 
swine  as  if  he  had  no  pearls. 

Mark  lifts  the  curtain  on  one  of  those 
quiet  mornings  in  the  life  of  Jesus  as  he 
went  out  into  the  public  highway.  He  had 
scarcely  reached  the  gate  when  this  enthu- 
siastic young  man  came  running  unto  him. 
He  had  doubtless  heard  Jesus  teach  upon 
many  occasions,  and,  after  pondering  it  in 
his  clean  young  mind,  felt  that  Christ's 
appeal  was  irresistible.  He  wanted  to  have 
within  him  that  life  of  which  Jesus  talked. 

This  is  what  any  young  man  will  find 
If  he  will  get  away  from  the  current  notions 
men  have  of  the  Man  of  Galilee.  If  he 
will  study  what  Jesus  really  said.  Instead 
of  getting  his   Ideas   from   the   enemies   of 

125 


JESUS    CHRIST    IN    HUMAN    EXPERIENCE 

Christianity,  or  even  what  a  large  number 
of  preachers  have  to  say  about  Jesus,  he 
will  find  his  enthusiasm  rapidly  welling  up. 
Get  the  sincere  milk  of  the  Word  before 
it  is  put  through  any  patent  process ! 

If  he  did  not  see  the  divine  Christ,  cer- 
tainly he  saw  the  human  Jesus  and  had 
respect  unto  him  as  a  great  Teacher;  he 
kneeled  unto  him.  What  are  the  questions 
young  men  are  usually  asking?  Modernize 
this  incident,  and  what  would  be  the  natural 
thing  to  expect  from  the  lips  of  this  young 
man?  The  major  part  of  our  educational 
institutions  are  teaching  their  students  to 
be  efficient  money-makers.  It  is  only  in  the 
last  few  years  that  these  institutions  have 
given  any  attention  to  the  altruistic,  the 
philanthropic.  Sociology  is  one  of  the  very 
latest  sciences  to  find  a  place  in  the  curric- 
ulum, and  even  yet  it  is  an  elective  in  nearly 
all  colleges.  They  insist  on  trigonometry, 
calculus  and  the  like,  but  they  do  not  insist 
upon  their  graduates  knowing  something 
of  their  duty  to  the  great  world  In  which 
they  are  to  live  and  from  which  they  are  to 
gain  their  living.  It  may  be  that  after  the 
men  get  out  and  come  In  contact  with  the 
sores,  physical  and  mental,  of  men,   they 

126 


THE   TRAGEDY   OF   OPPORTUNITY 

will  be  led  to  attempt  something  in  their 
behalf.  But  how  many  college-trained  men 
have  done  this?  Their  training  is  at  fault. 
It  would  be  far  better  to  work  out  the 
equation  of  Smith  plus  Jones  than  the 
square  of  a  -plus  b! 

It  was  not  advice  on  how  to  become  a 
more  successful  business  man,  or  how  to  get 
the  maximum  pleasure  out  of  life,  that 
interested  this  young  man.  He  asked  about 
"eternal  life,"  a  very  unusual  question,  but 
he  was  an  unusual  young  man.  There  was 
light  in  his  face  and  expectancy  in  his  query, 
and  it  is  easily  understood  why,  when  Jesus 
looked  upon  him,  He  loved  him. 

II 

This  young  man  had  fulfilled  his  re- 
ligious duty  and,  measured  by  the  common 
standards,  he  was  a  religious  man.  Jesus 
enumerated  six  of  the  commandments,  and 
the  young  man  immediately  replied  that 
he  had  observed  them  from  youth.  Will 
you  find  one  more  punctual  in  his  religious 
duties  than  he?  The  Church  and  the 
majority  of  its  clergy  see  In  this  the  sum 
total  of  religion.  But  these  things  are  only 
the  threads  which  compose  the  basis  of  the 

127 


JESUS    CHRIST    IN    HUMAN    EXPERIENCE 


social  fabric.  The  world  does  not  want, 
nor  does  it  need,  more  formal  religion;  it 
has  too  much  already!  The  Greek  word 
for  religion  is  a  heathen  term  and  means 
primarily  "fear  of  the  gods."  The  EngHsh 
word  is  a  Latin  derivative  and  means  "bind- 
ing." So  far  as  we  know,  Jesus  never  used 
the  term  "religion."  He  did  not  teach  men 
to  be  "bound";  he  taught  them  to  be  "free." 
He  did  not  teach  "religion";  he  taught 
"expression."  He  directed  life;  he  did 
not  suppress  or  constrict  it. 

I  have  an  idea  that  Jesus  mentioned 
these  commandments  as  a  test  to  see  how 
far  this  young  man  had  thought  into  the 
problem  which  was  the  genesis  of  his  ques- 
tion. "Young  man,  here  is  the  religion  of 
your  fathers;  is  not  that  sufficient?"  But 
he  craved  the  opportunity  of  expression;  he 
did  not  want  to  feel  the  negative  walling 
him  in  at  every  turn;  he  craved  life.  For 
over  fifteen  hundred  years  Judaism  had 
not  changed  either  in  form  or  in  spirit, 
save  as  circumstances  made  it  necessary 
(as,  for  example,  by  the  introduction  of 
synagogue  worship)  ;  it  was  practically  the 
same  in  the  time  of  Jesus  as  in  the  days 
of  Moses.     Small  wonder  it  is  that  Christ 

128 


THE   TRAGEDY    OF    OPPORTUNITY 

urged  the  futility  of  pouring  new  wine  into 
old  bottles.  Christianity  does  not  consist 
in  keeping  days,  observing  forms  and  fol- 
lowing rules.  The  "rules"  of  the  Church 
are  not  always  the  "rules"  of  Jesus. 

Men  do  not  get  much  pleasure  out  of 
doing  don'ts.  Red-blooded  men  want  some- 
thing that  expresses  manhood.  No  young 
man  ever  asks  a  football  coach:  "What 
shall  I  not  do?"  Youth  is  not  built  that 
way;  it  wants  a  chance  to  express  itself. 

But  every  pastor  knows  that  the  major- 
ity of  his  people  are  satisfied  if  they  are 
not  doing  anything  bad.  The  whole  basis  of 
their  life  is  wrong  (satisfied  in  idleness), 
and,  if  they  think  they  are  God's  children, 
they  were  never  further  from  the  truth. 
This  Is  the  popular  conception  of  religion, 
but  it  Is  not  the  meaning  of  Christianity. 
The  price  Is  too  great,  and,  even  though 
the  opportunity  Is  before  them,  they  can 
not  enter  the  door;  some  from  unbelief, 
more  from  sheer  laziness! 

When  the  Master  stood  In  the  presence 
of  the  afflicted  woman  he  was  In  the  pres- 
ence of  enforced  Idleness,  but  here  he  Is 
In  the  presence  of  physical  beauty  and  per- 
fection.     This    young    man    had    not    the 

9  129 


JESUS    CHRIST    IN    HUMAN    EXPERIENCE 

calloused  palm  of  the  toiler,  nor  yet  the 
coarse  garb  of  the  laborer.  On  the  con- 
trary, he  had  wealth  and  social  distinction; 
he  was  one  of  the  very  few  of  that  class 
who  came  to  Jesus  during  his  earthly  min- 
istry. It  is  no  wonder  our  Lord  saw  in 
him  possible  material   for  an  apostle. 

The  very  condition  into  which  he  had 
been  born  carried  with  it  tremendous  oppor- 
tunity. He  had  wealth  and  it  must  be 
used  wisely;  he  had  youth,  a  life  to  spend; 
he  had  social  prestige,  and  that  gave  him 
entrance  Into  the  lives  of  other  fine  young 
men;  he  was  devout,  and  there  was  a 
splendid  pathway  before  him.  Success  was 
his  simply  for  the  asking.  He  "ran"  to 
Jesus;  but  "he  went  away  sorrowful."  His 
countenance  fell,  the  light  faded  out  of 
his  eager  eyes,  and  his  heart  was  sad- 
dened, for  Jesus  proposed  a  thing  that  has 
turned  thousands  from  him.  Men's  religion 
has  been  a  selfish  thing  to  be  enjoyed  with 
a  friend  or  two,  like  a  fine  meal  in  a  cosy 
alcove  of  a  high-class  restaurant.  "Young 
man,  are  you  serious  in  your  question;  do 
you  really  desire  eternal  life?  Then,  note 
the  condition." 


130 


THE   TRAGEDY   OF   OPPORTUNITY 

III 

And  this  is  what  the  world  has  over- 
looked: "His  duty  to  society."  But  why 
talk  of  society?  Is  not  that  one  of  the 
hackneyed  subjects?  Perhaps,  but  "disease" 
is  a  hackneyed  subject  also.  Jesus  did  not 
give  him  a  parcel  of  generalizations  which 
mouthed  well,  but  meant  nothing,  neither 
did  he  moralize  and  lament  over  the  con- 
dition of  the  poor,  nor  did  he  pay  high- 
sounding  compliments  to  this  young  man 
because  he  had  property.  But  he  said:  If 
you  are  In  earnest,  there  is  one  thing  for  you 
to  do:  sell  what  you  have,  give  it  to  the 
poor,  and  follow  me.  He  had  asked  to 
do  something  that  he  might  have  eternal 
life,  and  Jesus  named  the  cost;  but  look 
what  he  was  invited  to  do !  Again  let  me 
ask:  "Is  It  easy  to  follow  Christ?"  It  Is  far 
easier  to  be  religious;  hence  the  majority 
prefer  to  be  religious  rather  than  Christian. 
Christianity  and  religion  are  not  necessarily 
synonymous  terms.  A  man  may  burn  a 
candle  now  and  then,  sprinkle  a  quart  or 
two  of  holy  water,  make  long  prayers, 
insist  upon  the  traditional  Interpretation  of 
certain  texts,  say  "Amen"  with  much  unction 

131 


JESUS    CHRIST    IN    HUMAN    EXPERIENCE 

and  fervor,  and  pass  as  religious;  but  being 
a  Christian  is  not  in  pious  looks.  It  is 
giving  a  cup  of  cold  water  in  the  name  of 
a  disciple.  A  man  can  not  be  a  Christian 
and  let  his  neighbor  alone. 

I  take  it  that  Jesus  had  no  intention 
of  pronouncing  against  wealth,  but  rather 
against  anything  that  hinders  a  man  from 
doing  his  duty  to  his  fellow-man.  This 
incident  is  only  typical;  a  man  may  allow 
his  occupation  to  keep  him  from  his  duty 
to  society.  But  note  the  thing  Jesus  pro- 
posed: "Sell  what  you  have."  If  he  were 
literally  to  follow  Jesus,  he  could  not  be 
encumbered  with  property  interests;  his 
attention  must  not  be  divided.  If  he  were 
In  Galilee,  he  could  not  have  his  mind  in 
Jerusalem.  He  could  not  occupy  a  place 
among  Christ's  followers  unless  he  were 
willing  to  surrender  all. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  how  Christ  pro- 
posed that  the  young  man  dispose  of  his 
wealth.  Some  have  said:  "Deed  it  to  me." 
And  so  have  the  religious  fakers  of  all 
ages  urged  their  followers  to  give  their 
property  into  their  hands,  but  Jesus  asks 
nothing  for  himself.  "Give  it  to  the  poor." 
This  was  a  staggering  blow.     It  were  bad 

132 


THE   TRAGEDY    OF    OPPORTUNITY 

enough  to  convert  it  all  into  cash,  but  to 
give  it  to  the  poor!  Why  not  give  it  to 
his  relatives?  Why  not  build  a  public 
library  in  his  city,  or  buy  a  public  park 
and  call  it  by  his  name?  That  would  per- 
petuate his  memory  as  a  philanthropist. 
It  was  beginning  to  be  clear  to  him  that 
"following  Jesus"  had  a  much  deeper 
significance  than  he  had  dreamed.  Eternal 
life !  He  longed  for  it,  yet  the  lure  of  the 
temporal  was  greater  than  he  could  over- 
come. But  who  had  more  need  of  assistance 
than  the  poor  in  those  days  of  unorganized 
philanthropy?  Did  he  not  have  an  oppor- 
tunity to  begin  to  practice  at  once  what 
was  the  very  core  of  the  teaching  of  Jesus? 
'*Come,  follow  me."  Having  divested 
himself  of  all  distracting  things  and  having 
shown  that  he  was  in  sympathy  with  the 
mission  of  Jesus,  he  would  be  ready  for 
the  company  of  that  most  remarkable  group 
of  men  the  world  has  ever  known,  but  "he 
went  away";  he  could  not  pay  the  price. 
The  words  of  Jesus  in  another  place  apply 
here:  "Behold,  I  set  before  you  a  door 
opened."  He  was  not  big  enough  to  enter, 
and  that  is  the  tragedy  of  it.  "What 
might  have  been!"      "Come,    follow  me;" 

133 


JESUS    CHRIST    IN    HUMAN    EXPERIENCE 

but  the  allurements  of  this  earthly  life  were 
too  strong;  he  could  not  break  them;  "he 
went  away." 

Good  Teacher,  we  have  heard  thy  voice 
and  have  been  moved  toward  thee  and  the 
eternal  life  which  thou  olferest.  There  is 
the  charm  of  thy  holy  presence  which  has 
drawn  us  with  eager  steps,  and  reverently 
we  kneel  to  thee.  But  the  distracting  things, 
the  entangling  things,  are  so  bound  about 
us  that  when  we  would  be  free  from  them 
they  bind  us  the  more  closely.  Call  thou 
to  our  consciences  and  bid  our  spirits  awake, 
that  we  may  not  be  held  by  temporal  things; 
when  eternal  realities  call  us.  Teach  us 
that  thy  religion  is  expression — loving  God 
and  serving  men  and  seeing  thee  in  every- 
thing. 


134 


XI 

BARTIMEUS:   LIGHT  THROUGH   DARK- 

NESS 

(Mark   lo:  46-52.) 

When  I  consider  how  my  light  is  spent 
Ere  half  my  days,  in  this  dark  world  and  wide ; 
And  that  one  talent  which  is  death  to  hide, 
Lodged  with  me  useless,  though  my  soul  more  bent 

To  serve  therewith  my  Maker,  and  present 
My  true  account,  lest  he  returning  chide; 
Doth  God  exact  day-labour,  light  denied, 
I  fondly  ask?    But  Patience,  to  prevent 

That  murmur,  soon  replies,  God  doth  not  need 
Either  man's  work  or  his  own  gifts ;  who  best 
Bear  his  mild  yoke,   they   serve   him  best :   his   state 

Is  kingly:  thousands  at  his  bidding  speed. 
And  post  o'er  land  and  ocean  without  rest; 
They  also  serve  who  only  stand  and  wait. 

— Milton. 

"DLIND!  Can  you  imagine  it?  And 
blind  In  an  age  when  there  were  no 
institutions  to  care  for  those  dwelling  In 
darkness.  Note  the  pathos  Mark  puts  into 
the  sentence:  "Bartlmaeus,  a  blind  beggar, 
was  sitting  by  the  wayside."     The  beggar 

135 


JESUS    CHRIST    IN    HUMAN    EXPERIENCE 

in  possession  of  all  his  faculties  does  not 
cause  us  serious  discomfort,  but  the  appeal 
of  the  sightless  ones  goes  to  the  heart.  Be 
it  said  to  the  credit  of  our  country  that  it 
has  provided  handsomely  for  these  unfor- 
tunates. It  educates  and  cares  for  them. 
But  for  Bartimasus  there  was  nothing  but 
long  days  of  waiting,  listening  to  tramping 
feet,  catching  snatches  of  news  from  passing 
caravans,  clamoring  for  a  few  farthings  to 
sustain  his  useless  life. 

It  is  not  strange,  therefore,  that  his 
appeal  brought  Jesus  to  a  standstill.  Did 
any  one  ever  enjoy  light  more  than  he? 
He  is  the  world's  ideal  poet;  form,  color 
and  beauty  thrilled  him.  There  was  magic 
in  the  silvery  sheen  of  Galilee;  the  green- 
carpeted  hills  drew  him  often  to  their 
expansive  breasts  after  the  roar  of  the  day 
had  died  into  the  silence  of  the  night. 
Under  the  quiet  skies,  with  only  the  stars 
for  companions,  Jesus  spent  many  hours  in 
meditation   and  prayer. 

He  heard  the  cry  of  men  as  they  wan- 
dered in  the  darkness;  it  came  to  his  heart 
far  more  pathetically  and  a  hundred-fold 
more  appealingly  than  the  Importunities  of 
Bartimaeus  by  the  Jericho  gate. 

136 


LIGHT   THROUGH    DARKNESS 


Once  more  *'a  great  multitude."  The 
greatest  season  in  the  Jewish  calendar  was 
on — the  Passover.  Jerusalem  awoke  from 
a  city  sleeping  on  the  hills  of  Zion  and 
Moriah  into  a  living  organism,  and,  draw- 
ing in  its  breath,  brought  within  its  walls, 
from  every  quarter  of  the  globe,  the  sons 
of  Abraham,  and  every  Jew  felt  the  pull. 

There  is  a  melancholy  interest  attached 
to  the  events  of  this  narrative.  Christ  had 
visited  Galilee  for  the  last  time,  and  the 
Peraean  ministry  was  closed.  Jerusalem 
was  before  him,  not  as  it  had  been  so  many 
times  in  the  past,  but  now  as  the  place 
where  he  was  to  fulfill  his  mission  in  the 
world. 

On  his  way  down  from  Galilee  Jesus 
had  gone  over  into  Peraea,  crossing  the 
Jordan  again  at  Jericho.  Outside  the  city 
a  blind  beggar  heard  the  tread  of  feet  and, 
with  characteristic  alertness,  knew  some  one 
extraordinary  was  passing.  "And  when  he 
heard  it  was  Jesus  the  Nazarene,  he  began 
to  cry  out  and  say,  Jesus,  thou  son  of 
David,  have  mercy  on  me."  How  thor- 
oughly the  knowledge  of  Jesus  had  perme- 

137 


JESUS    CHRIST    IN    HUMAN    EXPERIENCE 

ated  Palestine.  Not  only  did  the  rulers 
know  him,  but  also  the  beggars  by  the  way- 
side. And  from  the  importunate  pleadings 
of  Bartimaeus  it  would  seem  that  they 
understood  him  better  than  the  aristocrats. 
They  had  heard  of  what  Jesus  had  been 
doing,  and  they  believed  he  could  do  the 
same  for  them  if  he  were  but  to  pass  their 
way. 

Bartimaeus  addressed  Jesus  as  "the  son 
of  David";  that  meant  "Messiah."  The 
strange  thing  is  that  the  beggar  should  per- 
ceive in  him  the  Christ,  while  those  who 
had  been  with  him  should  "rebuke  him 
that  he  should  hold  his  peace."  Eyes  had 
they,  but  they  saw  not.  They  were  willing 
to  enjoy  the  charm  of  his  presence  and  the 
loaves  from  his  hands,  yet  when  even  a 
beggar  called  him  the  Messiah  their  lips 
straightway  voiced  a  rebuke.  But  that  is 
typical  of  the  multitude;  they  enjoy  the 
benefits  of  Christian  civilization — liberty, 
freedom  of  speech  and  all  such — yet  when 
these  things  are  ascribed  to  the  Man  of 
Galilee,  then:  "Hold  your  peace."  And 
why?  Why  not  give  Jesus  the  open  honor? 
Is  it  not  his?  Fatal  folly!  Willful  blind- 
ness !     Have  we  gained  our  peaceful  homes, 

138 


LIGHT   THROUGH    DARKNESS 


our  noble  institutions,  our  great  literature, 
in  our  own  strength?  Jesus  is  written  in 
it  and  over  it  and  through  it,  so  large  that 
the  blind  by  the  Jericho  highway  recognize 
him,  yet  the  high  priest  from  Jerusalem 
expurgates  his  blessed  name  from  every- 
thing.   Would  you?    Do  you? 

The  demand  for  silence  only  stirred  the 
blind  to  more  strenuous  appeals:  "He  cried 
out  the  more  a  great  deal."  Again  and 
again,  clamorously,  loudly,  insistently,  as 
you  would  have  done,  he  cried:  "Thou  son 
of  David,  have  mercy  on  me." 

A  great  need  is  never  silenced  by 
rebuke. 

There  is  something  wrong  with  our 
industrial  relationships  when  there  are 
"blind  men"  by  the  "wayside,"  for  every 
man  has  the  right  to  "eyesight."  There  is 
something  wrong  with  that  system  or  that 
institution  which  thrusts  out  from  itself  such 
amazing  heaps  of  human  wreckage.  In- 
stead of  demands  for  silence,  let  there  be 
a  thousand  tongues  to  plead  against  this 
deep  damnation.  When  men  see  their 
brothers  reduced  to  wayside  beggary,  then 
they  should  begin  to  question  the  holdings 
in  their  own  hands. 

139 


JESUS    CHRIST    IN    HUMAN    EXPERIENCE 

*'Call  ye  him,"  said  Jesus.  "Ye"— 
who?  Those  with  Him;  his  disciples, 
probably.  Look  at  those  three  words. 
How  mighty  the  Christian  world  became — 
In  doctrine.  What  ponderous  volumes  stand 
on  our  shelves — volumes  on  "Institutes," 
"Introductions,"  "Systems,"  "Plans  of  Sal- 
vation." Their  covers  are  written  over 
with  "Lord,  Lord,"  but  their  pages  are 
full  of  bondage.  Christian  men  have  fought 
with  barbaric  fury  for  the  mark  which 
decided  whether  a  letter  was  Omicron  or 
Theta,  but  where  have  they  fought  for  a 
chance  to  call  Bartimaeus  to  Jesus,  even 
though  he  be  by  the  wayside  begging?  A 
mark  has  been  more  than  a  man,  a  dot 
more  than  duty. 

Tell  me,  ye  who  haggle  over  baptisms, 
ceremonies  and  interpretations,  what  It 
means  to  "have  mercy  and  not  sacrifice." 
Shall  we  save  men  or  rescue  dogma?  Our 
disputes  are  so  loud  and  our  anger  so  hot 
that  we  can  not  hear  Bartimaeus,  who  In  his 
darkness  cries:  "Have  mercy."  I  am  not 
so  much  concerned  about  doctrines  any 
more.  If  a  man  believes  that  Jesus  Christ 
Is  the  Son  of  God,  that  should  be  sufficient. 
Why  starve  to  emaciation  on  watered  doc- 

140 


LIGHT   THROUGH    DARKNESS 

trines  and  pale-blue  milk?  Should  I  meet 
another  casting  out  demons  in  His  name, 
far  be  it  from  me  to  forbid  him,  lest  he  be 
a  more  consistent  disciple  than  I. 

II 

Every  man  has  a  chief  desire  which 
shapes  his  destiny.  Even  the  most  casual 
reader  recognizes  at  once  that  Bartimaeus 
was  not  asking  for  gold.  And,  strangely 
enough,  neither  he  nor  Jesus  had  said  any- 
thing about  sight  restoration.  But  never 
had  his  cry  been  so  earnest,  so  importunate; 
a  crisis  had  come. 

Are  you  daring  enough  to  take  a  pencil 
and  write  out  your  chief  desires?  No,  no; 
not  for  other  eyes — just  for  your  own. 
And  when  you  have  done  so,  dare  you  spend 
an  hour  in  thought  with  that  sheet  before 
you?  Where  do  your  chief  desires  center? 
In  the  physical,  mental  or  spiritual?  Are 
you  quite  sure  of  the  motive  which,  like  a 
throbbing  engine  somewhere  down  in  the 
mysterious  depths,  is  thrusting  you  for- 
ward? Men  are  likely  to  build  largely 
upon  the  physical  because  it  is  tangible,  and 
least  upon  the  spiritual.  That  order  should 
be    reversed,    because    the   spiritual   is   the 

141 


JESUS    CHRIST    IN    HUMAN    EXPERIENCE 

greatest  of  all.  There  is  too  much  at 
stake  to  "guess  and  fear." 

Bartimaeus  desired  to  be  loosed  from 
the  seat  of  beggary  by  the  roadside;  he 
wanted  to  be  loosed  from  the  life  of  noth- 
ingness which  he  had  been  compelled  to  live 
all  these  years;  he  wanted  a  place  among 
men;  he  wanted  to  care  for  himself. 

There  is  a  certain  class  of  people  in 
every  city  who  seem  to  enjoy  their  hand- 
to-mouth  existence.  This  were  serious 
enough  were  they  the  only  ones  concerned, 
but  they  marry  and  children  come  to  share 
their  miserable  existence.  Why  is  poverty? 
If  a  man  prefers  it,  then  there  is  something 
wrong  with  him  and  he  needs  attention;  if 
society  forces  it  upon  him,  then  society  is 
at  serious  fault  and  needs  readjustment. 
We  have  little  trouble  in  explaining  the 
poverty  of  India  and  China,  but  we  are  blind 
to  the  thousands  of  America  who  are  under- 
nourished and  poorly  housed.  Famine  and 
flood  do  not  enter  into  our  poverty  problem, 
neither  do  undeveloped  resources,  though 
exploited  natural  resources  may  have  a 
very  great  deal  to  do  with  it.  Concentra- 
tion of  population  enters  Into  it.  May 
God  bless  the  "back  to  the  soil"  movements. 

142 


LIGHT   THROUGH    DARKNESS 

It  is  there  the  race  will  recover  its  sight. 
We  can  not  live  and  work  in  buildings 
raised  to  the  wth  story  and  expect  to  be 
keen  of  vision.  Men  must  have  the  wide 
expanse  of  fields  and  the  unsmoked  sky, 
for  they  were  made  for  the  open.  When 
they  descend  into  the  dim  canyons  whose 
walls  are  the  twenty-five  stories  of  the 
modern  city  buildings,  they  may  expect  to  be- 
come like  cellar  plants — colorless  and  puny. 

Ill 

Jesus  said  something  about  eyes  that 
see  not;  perhaps  he  meant  us.  We  pride 
ourselves  on  our  keenness  of  vision,  when 
perhaps  we  should  be  heeding  the  warning 
and  advice  given  to  the  Laodicean  church: 
*'I  counsel  thee  to  buy  of  me  .  .  .  eyesalve 
to  anoint  thine  eyes,  that  thou  mayest  see.'' 
We  have  no  trouble  in  seeing  heresy  in  the 
other  fellow,  but  "thou  that  abhorrest  Idols, 
dost  thou  commit  sacrilege?" 

We  sit  by  the  wayside  and  listen  to  the 
voices  of  Jewish  pilgrims  going  to  Jeru- 
salem to  worship  as  they  have  done  for  a 
thousand  years;  they  are  our  kind  of  pil- 
grims. But  one  day  a  different  sound  Is 
detected  above  the  murmur  of  the  multl- 

143 


JESUS    CHRIST    IN    HUMAN    EXPERIENCE 

tude;  a  stranger  is  there.  His  beasts  are 
not  Palestinian  asses,  but  horses  and  camels, 
and  his  servants  speak  another  tongue. 
Immediately:  "Who  is  he?"  "What  right?" 
"What  business  has  he  in  Jerusalem?" 
"Treason  I" 

May  not  a  man  reach  Jerusalem  on  a 
horse's  back  as  well  as  striding  an  ass, 
though  that  be  the  favorite  beast  of  the 
orthodox?  Must  he  come  in  by  the  Jericho 
gate?  May  God  deal  gently  with  the  men 
who  have  the  courage  to  get  out  of  the 
beaten  path;  they  are  more  wholesome  for 
the  thinking  world  than  a  "wilderness  of 
monkeys."  Every  great  man,  including  the 
Master  himself,  has  been  out  of  the  beaten 
path. 

"Jesus,  thou  son  of  David,  have  mercy 
upon  me."  Men  see  in  Christ  everything 
else  save  Messiahship.  They  admire  his 
parables  and  delight  in  his  poetic  temper- 
ament, but  fail  to  grasp  the  true  import  of 
his  mission.  When  as  Messiah  he  touches 
our  experiences,  all  our  darkness  flees  away 
and  light  floods  our  souls. 

Jesus,  thou  from  Nazareth,  by  life's 
wayside  we  wait  for  the  tread  of  thy  holy 
feet.     So  long  the  night  has  been  upon  our 

144 


LIGHT   THROUGH    DARKNESS 

souls,  so  deep  the  darkness  that  has  en- 
compassed us.  A  thousand  feet  and  the 
murmur  of  innumerable  voices  have  gone 
by  us,  and  rumors  from  all  the  earth  have 
come  to  our  ears;  but  when  thou  comest, 
the  hush  of  thy  divine  presence  falleth  upon 
all  the  throng.  "O  son  of  David,  have 
mercy  on  us!"  We  would  see — see  thee 
and  the  great  Father  of  all;  we  would  see 
men  as  our  brethren,  and  we  would  see  our 
pathway,  for  it  is  the  way  thy  blessed  feet 
have  trod. 


10  145 


XII 

JESUS  AND  THE  TAX  COLLECTOR 

(Luke  19:  i-io.) 

'T^HE  Romans  farmed  out  their  taxes, 
'"■  that  is,  they  sold  the  revenue  privi- 
leges to  certain  men  for  a  consideration, 
and  everything  collected  over  that  amount 
went  to  the  publican.  That  system  led  to 
much  extortion  and  was  exceedingly  un- 
popular with  the  masses.  For  a  Jew  to 
become  a  publican  meant  disfranchisement 
and  social  ostracism.  But  to  some  the  call 
of  the  shekel  was  stronger  than  blood  and 
country;  it  was  bankable,  while  social  stand- 
ing bore  no  interest! 

Throughout  the  Gospels  there  are  two 
words  which  usually  travel  together — "pub- 
licans" and  "sinners.''  When  the  Pharisees 
wished  to  speak  particularly  contemptuously 
of  Jesus  they  accused  him  of  friendship 
with  publicans  and  sinners;  "this  man  re- 
ceiveth  sinners  and  eateth  with  them."  In 
turn   Jesus   said:    "The   publicans   and   the 

146 


JESUS   AND   THE   TAX    COLLECTOR 

harlots  go  into  the  kingdom  of  God  before 
you."  Possibly  Jesus  enjoyed  their  com- 
pany because  they  were  human;  certainly 
there  was  no  hypocrisy  or  artificiality  about 
them.  If  the  inside  of  the  cup  and  platter 
were  smeared  and  soiled,  the  outside  made 
no  apologies;  they  were  the  same  all  the  way 
through,  and  this  could  not  be  said  of  the 
accusers  of  Christ.  The  Pharisee  with  his 
pions  veneer,  the  lawyer  with  his  technicali- 
ties, the  scribe  with  his  jots  and  tittles — all 
laid  their  burdens  upon  the  people.  They 
were  wolves  in  sheep's  clothing,  devourers 
of  widows'  houses,  extortioners.  Jesus  had 
penetrated  their  sham,  and  they  knew  it; 
hence  they  hated  him.  He  preferred  sin- 
cerity, even  among  the  publicans  and  harlots, 
rather  than  the  hypocrisy  of  the  spiritual 
leaders  (  ?)  of  Israel.  To  him  religion  was 
to  be  carried  into  the  real-estate  business,  into 
the  collector's  office;  it  was  not  to  be  left  In 
the  chief  seats  of  the  synagogue. 

Luke  shows  most  delightfully  in  this 
incident  how  Jesus  touches  the  experience 
of  the  average  business  man,  and  how  that 
man  responds. 


147 


JESUS    CHRIST    IN    HUMAN    EXPERIENCE 


The  Gospel  narrators  do  not  lead  their 
readers  through  the  dreary  deserts  of 
abstraction,  but  rather  through  the  habita- 
tions of  men,  where  things  are  happening. 
They  take  us  to  the  marriage  of  the  king's 
son  and  to  the  grave  of  Lazarus;  from  the 
stormy  waves  of  GaHlee  to  the  quiet  well 
In  Samaria;  from  the  peaceful  hills  of  the 
north  to  the  crowded  courts  of  the  Temple 
In  the  Holy  City.  Real  characters  walk 
through  their  paragraphs,  and  every  page 
thrills  with  life — from  the  sparrow  to  the 
king.  Some  sections  may  seem  dark  and 
difficult,  but  these  are  the  deep  wells  which 
are  never  dipped  dry;  they  are  the  chal- 
lenges to  men  to  lengthen  their  ropes  and 
enlarge  their  buckets,  for  somewhere  down 
in  the  unsounded  depths  is  the  copious  flow 
of  living  water. 

Zacchaeus  was  no  ordinary  man.  If  it 
is  true  that  familiarity  breeds  contempt, 
then  possibly  we  have  mistaken  the  names 
on  the  sacred  page  for  the  individuals  them- 
selves. We  speak  of  Moses  and  Isaiah  and 
Paul  and  Zacchaeus  and  Pontius  Pilate  as 
if    they   had   been    our    schoolmates.      We 

148 


JESUS   AND   THE  TAX   COLLECTOR 

know  their  names  far  better  than  we  know 
them.  Many  of  the  names  on  the  Gospel 
pages  stand  for  great  leaders.  We  speak 
of  Zacchaeus  as  if  he  collected  cheap  insur- 
ance among  the  colored  people.  He  was 
no  petty  official;  he  was  the  "chief  publi- 
can," and  to  hold  that  position  meant  that 
he  must  have  ability.  You  will  note  that 
the  most  serious  complaint  that  is  lodged 
against  him  was  the  business  he  was  in; 
''he  was  a  publican."  But  he  was  capable 
of  grasping  very  quickly  the  meaning  of 
things   spiritual. 

Zacchaeus  had  been  doing  business  ac- 
cording to  the  accepted  standards  of  his 
time.  If  he  had  done  anything  wrong 
(and  he  expressed  himself  as  ignorant  of 
it) ,  then  the  system  under  which  he  worked 
was  at  fault,  and  not  he.  A  fairly  careful 
study  of  the  Gospel  narratives  will  fail  to 
reveal  where  the  leaders  of  Israel  ever 
lodged  formal  complaint  with  the  Latin 
Government  for  the  system  which  was  cor- 
rupting the  lives  of  many  of  Israel's  choicest 
men.  Israel  simply  ostracized  the  publican 
and  was  silent  as  to  the  system.  And  we — 
we  demand  the  "scalp"  of  a  grafting  patrol- 
man, and  let  his  chief  go  free.     We  "get" 

149 


JESUS    CHRIST    IN    HUMAN    EXPERIENCE 

the  petty  politician,  but  send  his  "boss"  to 
Congress !  Our  efforts  at  reform  are  usually 
backwards;  we  snip  off  a  few  twigs  instead 
of  digging  up  the  roots.  We  pass  a  pri- 
vate drinking-cup  law,  but  wink  at  the 
social  rottenness  which  makes  the  cup  nec- 
essary. The  average  reformer  is  like  a 
geyser — four  hundred  feet  up  in  the  air 
and  scalding  hot,  or  four  hundred  feet  out 
of  sight  and  doing  nothing.  Some  preachers 
and  a  number  of  their  members  want  an 
evangelist  to  hold  a  meeting  that  v/ill  scorch 
the  town.  When  that  is  done,  some  one 
afterwards  has  to  handle  the  burnt  logs ! 
The  steady  pull  seldom  suffers  from  relapse. 
Our  age  calls  for  intelligent  analyses  and 
equally  intelligent  action  in  treating  the 
hurt.  Neither  freezing  nor  blistering  will 
heal.  The  Pharisees  had  tried  both  on 
Zacchasus;  they  froze  him  out  of  society 
and  blistered  him  with  their  epithets.  Men 
want  to  be  healed,  not  excoriated. 

This  is  the  second  time  in  our  study  that 
a  rich  man  has  stood  in  the  presence  of 
Jesus.  Whereas  the  rich  young  ruler  boast- 
ed that  he  had  kept  the  commandments, 
Zacchasus  was  a  silent  onlooker;  the  former 
ran  to  Jesus,  the  latter  ran  on  before,  seek- 

150 


JESUS    AND    THE   TAX    COLLECTOR 


ing  a  place  where  he  might  see  Jesus;  the 
rich  young  ruler  went  away  sorrowful,  but 
to  Zacchseus  Jesus  said:  "To-day  is  salva- 
tion come  to  this  house."  Riches  neither 
made  nor  unmade  Zacchasus.  The  basis 
of  his  splendid  character  was  there  before 
he  had  collected  a  denarius,  and  the  accu- 
mulation of  gold  had  not  corroded  it. 

Why  should  a  rich  publican  be  an  out- 
cast? Who  had  separated  him  from  the 
commonwealth  of  Israel  and  denied  him 
fellowship  with  the  Jewish  church?  This 
same  Pharisaical  sect  which  sets  itself  up 
as  judge  in  our  modern  society,  both  in  and 
out  of  the  Church.  They  hand  the  rich 
young  ruler  a  palm,  but  give  Zacchaeus  a 
scourge;  they  give  the  one  a  fish,  the  other 
a  scorpion. 

II 

The  rich  young  ruler  had  no  hesitancy 
in  running  to  Jesus  with  his  question,  but 
Zacchaeus  was  not  so  bold;  the  best  he 
hoped  for  was  simply  a  glimpse  of  Jesus. 
Who  can  tell  the  longings  In  the  hearts  of 
the  social  outcasts — longings  to  see  the 
Christ?  Occasionally  one  makes  his  way 
back  from  the  *'far  country,"  telling  not  only 

151 


JESUS    CHRIST    IN    HUMAN    EXPERIENCE 

of  his  own  hungers,  but  of  the  tremendous 
famine  in  that  land.  Men  want  to  see 
Jesus,  but  they  are  in  their  own  sight  as 
grasshoppers.  So  felt  Moses  and  Gideon 
and  Paul.  Yet  a  man  must  empty  himself 
of  all  self-sufficiency  if  he  would  be  used  of 
the  Holy  Spirit.  If  any  man  will  be  wise, 
he  must  first  become  a  fool. 

And  how  many  have  failed  to  see  Jesus 
because  of  the  crowd!  Who  has  not 
watched,  to  his  soul's  consternation  and 
terror,  the  marshaling  of  the  black  army 
of  Doubt,  and  who  has  not  felt  Its  assaults 
upon  his  soul? 

"Our  doubts  are  traitors, 
And  make  us  lose  the  good  we  oft  might  win 
By  fearing  to  attempt." 

Is  It  Doubt  and  a  company  of  grave  sins, 
some  of  them  tall  and  gray-haired,  signify- 
ing age;  others  fair  and  rotund,  signifying 
vigor  and  health — do  these  shut  out  your 
view  of  the  Lord?  Run  away  from  the 
crowd;  get  where  It  can  not  obstruct  your 
view.  Look  for  Jesus  and  you  will  see 
him,  and  he  will  see  you. 

Men  usually  get  what  they  want.  If  they 
are  willing  to  pay  the  price.  Zacchasus  had 
grown   wealthy,    and    God   knows    he    had 

152 


JESUS   AND   THE   TAX    COLLECTOR 

paid  for  it.  When  he  came  near  the 
rulers  of  the  nation,  they  gathered  their 
robes  about  them  and  turned  their  backs 
to  him,  and  one  would  imagine  that  Zac- 
chaeus  saw  that  they  "paid  the  rent"! 
When  he  appeared  among  any  class  of  men, 
they  snarled  "Publican,"  and  withdrew  from 
him.  Truly,  he  was  "a  man  without  a 
country."  And  he  was  neither  the  first  nor 
the  last  to  buy  the  pile  of  gold  at  such  cost. 
But  if  he  was  to  see  Jesus  he  would 
have  to  humble  himself.  Imagine  a  man 
of  wealth  and  dignity  climbing  a  tree  like 
a  small  boy  to  view  a  parade!  But  Zac- 
chaeus  was  so  sincere  in  his  desire  that  he 
cared  nothing  about  his  pride;  he  did  the 
undignified  thing;  he  climbed  a  tree.  It 
is  not  an  infrequent  thing  to  meet  people 
who  would  like  to  "see  Jesus"  if  it  were 
not  for  making  a  public  profession  of  their 
faith,  or  submitting  to  the  ordinance  of 
Christian  baptism.  Pride  immediately 
swells  up  mountain  high,  and  they  get  no 
glimpse  of  the  face  of  the  Nazareth 
Prophet. 

Occasionally  some  modern  scientist  gives 
the  world  a  volume  of  wonderful  psycho- 

153 


JESUS    CHRIST    IN    HUMAN    EXPERIENCE 

logical  experiences  which  he  has  verified 
and  catalogued.  But,  after  all,  emotional 
experiences  are  quite  beyond  description. 
Words  lack  color;  phrases  are  void  of 
flexibility,  and  sentences  often  fail  to  con- 
vey anything  more  than  the  thought.  But 
what  must  have  been  the  sudden  leap  of 
Zacchaeus'  heart  as  he  sat  in  that  tree,  hun- 
gry for  a  friend  and  not  daring  to  express 
that  hunger,  when  Jesus  stopped  and  said: 
"Zacchasus,  to-day  I  must  abide  at  thy 
house."  This  was  something  thoroughly 
new  in  all  his  vast  number  of  experiences. 
Men  may  have  assaulted  him,  sworn  at  him, 
thrown  javelins  at  him,  lied  about  him, 
threatened  him,  but  who  before  had  ever 
honored  him?  And  in  this  there  could  be 
no  mistake;  Christ  was  standing  looking  at 
him  and  calling  his  name. 

It  was  Christ's  democracy  that  called 
down  upon  him  the  curses  of  the  aristocrats. 
If  Jesus  had  sat  within  the  silken  draperies 
of  the  homes  of  the  Pharisees  and  discussed 
whether  a  man  should  wear  false  teeth  on 
the  Sabbath  because  that  involved  bearing 
a  burden,  he  would  have  been  immensely 
popular  with  them;  he  would  have  been 
their  kind.      But  the  class  distinctions  men 

154 


JESUS  AND  THE  TAX  COLLECTOR 

had  made  never  occurred  to  him,  save  as 
men  needed  help.  It  made  little  difference 
whether  the  hands  of  the  wounded  man 
by  the  wayside  were  soft  or  calloused,  or 
whether  his  face  was  delicately  lined  or 
begrimed  with  soot;  he  had  a  tremendous 
Interest  In  everything  human.  And  when 
the  Church  follows  his  example  she  will 
find  the  attitude  toward  her  very  much 
changed. 

But  there  Is  a  dash  of  wormwood  In 
the  pleasant  potion.  There  Is  that  accursed 
undercurrent  which  is  always  present  wher- 
ever good  Is.  No  matter  what  Jesus  did, 
there  were  those  warped  and  twisted  sons  of 
Belial  who  carped  at  him.  "He  Is  gone  In 
to  lodge  with  a  man  that  Is  a  sinner;"  and 
that  class,  unfortunately,  never  has  a  funeral. 
Lying,  dissembling  hypocrites — thorns  In  the 
side  of  spiritual  Israel.  There  have  been 
more  churches  killed  or  crippled  by  the 
carplngs  of  long-tongued  women  than  by 
the  direct  action  of  the  devil  himself! 
Murmurers     are     the     murderers     of     the 

Lord's  work. 

IV 

Jesus  changed  the  world  for  Zacchaeus. 
Before,  he  saw  men  as  representing  so  much 

155 


JESUS    CHRIST    IN    HUMAN    EXPERIENCE 

taxable  property;  now  he  beheld  them  as 
brothers.  His  first  thought  was  what  he 
had  in  his  own  hands.  Come!  see  how  a 
publican  serves  his  God!  "The  half  of 
my  goods  I  give  to  the  poor."  Jesus 
Christ  touched  his  experience,  and  touched 
It  hard  enough  to  reach  his  bank  account. 
When  a  man  begins  immediately  to  talk 
about  using  his  money  for  the  good  of 
society,  who  doubts  his  conversion?  Where 
was  the  Pharisee  who  was  able  to  stand  by 
the  side  of  Zacchaeus  now?  We  read  of 
his  prayers,  his  fringes  and  his  phylacteries, 
but  seldom  of  his  charity. 

So  great  was  Zacchaeus'  joy  that  he 
did  not  stop  here;  he  announced  a  fourfold 
restoration  to  any  man  of  whom  he  had 
exacted  anything  wrongfully.  If  Zacchaeus 
had  lived  to-day,  men  would  accuse  him  of 
being  religiously  beside  himself.  Zacchaeus 
had  a  rare  mania! 

Give  a  pastor  men  like  this  publican  and 
he  will  build  a  church  that  will  startle  the 
world,  because  they  take  Jesus  and  his  mis- 
sion seriously.  "To-day  is  salvation  come  to 
this  house."  How  could  it  be  otherwise? 
At  one  leap  Zacchaeus  reached  greater 
heights  than  all  the  years  of  prayer  mum- 

156 


JESUS   AND   THE   TAX   COLLECTOR 

bling  and  mint-bed  tithing  had  secured  for 
the  rulers  of  Israel.  He  was  so  far  above 
them  that  a  Yerkes  telescope  would  not 
have  discovered  the  mountain  upon  whose 
summit  he  sat.  When  men  get  a  view  of 
Jesus  they  become  "new  creatures." 

Thou,  who  didst  walk  the  Jericho  high- 
way midst  the  blind  and  the  outcasts,  walk 
thou  also  among  us.  Forbid  that  our  social 
position  or  our  possessions,  or  lack  of  them, 
should  color  our  attitude  toward  our  fellow- 
men,  or  either  darken  or  distort  our  vision 
of  thee.  Give  us  that  quickness  of  con- 
science that,  when  thou  appearest,  saying, 
*'Make  haste,  for  to-day  I  must  abide  with 
thee,"  we  shall  leap  to  thy  side,  not  count- 
ing houses  and  lands  too  much,  or  even 
human  relationships  too  sacred,  to  be  set 
aside  that  thou  mayest  have  place  in  our 
dwelling. 


157 


XIII 
MARTHA:  THE  TYRANNY  OF  THINGS 

(Luke  10 :  38-42.) 

'^  I  ^  HINGS — many  things,  things  heaped 
up,  pressed  down,  shaken  together, 
running  over;  Important  things,  mediocre 
things,  frivolous  things,  hurtful  things — 
life  Is  made  up  of  them.  "Things"  Is 
usually  an  Impersonal  term  and  covers 
everything  from  tweedledee  to  transcenden- 
talism. Some  are  legitimate  and  helpful; 
others  are  base  and  harmful.  The  most 
of  them  carry  labels  without  regard  to 
contents.  Choice  of  the  right  thing  de- 
pends upon  the  cultivated  eye,  or,  perhaps 
what  IS  still  more  subtle,  the  spiritualized 
instincts  of  the  heart. 

Two  conditions  of  life  are  symbolized 
by  "the  many  things"  and  the  "one  thing." 
If  men  are  devotees  of  the  former,  they 
are  loath  to  express  It  In  the  cold  words  of 
the  theorem;  In  fact,  most  of  them  will 
likely   deny  knowledge   of   anything   which 

158 


MARTHA:   THE   TYRANNY   OF   THINGS 

crystallizes  in  any  such  doctrine.  Never- 
theless, they  are  a  great  majority.  A  man 
may  be  at  the  same  time  president  of  a 
bank,  director  of  a  paper-mill,  promoter 
of  a  land  sales  company,  but  because  he 
has  his  name  on  a  dozen  different  letter- 
heads is  no  cause  for  concluding  that  he  is 
the  most  useful  man  in  the  city.  He  is 
bound  up  in  things,  and  the  doing  of  things 
often  shuts  men  away  from  doing  the  one 
thing  which  exceeds,  both  in  size  and 
importance,  everything  else. 

I 

Custom  binds  upon  us  many  foolish 
as  well  as  useless  things.  We  follow  it,  not 
because  we  want  to,  but  because  we  are 
under  its  tyrannical  sway  and  dare  not  do 
otherwise.  Many  are  slaves  to  the  degree 
of  broken  health  and  ruined  homes. 

Martha  was  evidently  possessed  of  the 
Idea  that  the  best  way  to  entertain  Jesus 
was  to  give  him  a  good  dinner,  and  on  this 
she  expended  her  energy.  The  pots  and 
pans  in  her  pantry  held  such  sway  over  her 
that  she  could  not — dared  not — break  away 
from  them  even  though  the  Son  of  God 
was  In  her  parlor.     One  can  scarcely  con- 

159 


JESUS    CHRIST    IN    HUMAN    EXPERIENCE 

ceive  how  she  so  misjudged  the  Master, 
for  certainly,  to  him,  a  man's  life  did  not 
consist  in  the  abundance  of  the  things  he 
ate  nor  in  the  effect  produced  on  the  palate. 
Jesus  was  no  Epicurean,  although  he  en- 
joyed the  nice  things  of  life.  He  came 
"eating  and  drinking,"  but  these  were  sim- 
ply incidents.  He  enjoyed  the  fellowship 
more  than  the  food.  But  Martha,  like  so 
many  women,  thought  the  ends  of  life  were 
fully  met  when  a  good  dinner  was  steaming 
on  the  table.  Is  there  a  guest  announced 
for  the  home?  Then,  the  grocer  is  asked 
for  his  choicest,  the  best  cloth  is  laundered, 
the  silver  and  glass-ware  polished,  and 
Martha  extends  herself  on  the  flavoring  I 
But  if  her  guest  judges  her  by  her  house- 
wifely attainments  only,  then  he  is  unworthy 
of  a  place  at  her  table.  Our  Marthas 
work  themselves  almost  into  nervous  col- 
lapse stirring  the  surfaces  and  incidentals 
of  life,  but  they  fail  to  get  a  glimmer  of 
the  greater  Kingdom  of  peace  which  the 
Marys  get  while  sitting  at  the  feet  of  the 
Lord.  To  Martha,  Mary  was  a  shirker, 
and  she  was  so  exercised  about  it  that, 
unladylike,  she  showed  her  temper  in  the 
presence  of  her  guest.     Martha's  crimson 

160 


MARTHA:   THE   TYRANNY    OF   THINGS 

face  and  heated  words  still  come  bursting 
from  many  kitchens  even  to-day. 

It  is  serious  enough  that  Martha  was 
bound  by  such  ideas,  but  it  is  even  more 
serious  that  she  sought  to  compel  another 
to  accept  her  conception  of  service.  She 
insisted  that  her  sister  should  worship  at 
the  shrine  of  the  same  god,  Custom,  and 
she  was  so  insistent  that  she  came  to  Jesus 
exclaiming  impetuously:  "Lord,  dost  thou 
not  care?" 

And  our  good  women  have  their  rounds 
of  parties,  clubs  and  dinners,  and,  when 
another  comes  among  them,  they  insist  that 
she  shall  be  subject  to  the  same  tyranny 
they  enjoy  (?);  and  if  she  refuses,  she  is 
ostracized.  There  is  the  sad  undercurrent 
skillfully  hidden  in  the  exchange  of  their 
shallow  ideas,  beneath  the  tawdry  display 
of  fashion's  nonsense.  Sometimes  we  catch 
a  word  of  it  when  two  dames  get  together 
at  the  "reception,"  but  every  husband  knows 
of  the  worry,  the  wonderings,  the  care-over- 
nothings,  the  tired  bodies  and  aching  hearts 
and  damaged  tempers  that  return.  And 
what  have  the  dear  creatures  gained? 
Nothing  but  unrest.  They  do  these  things 
because  Custom  so  orders. 

11  161 


JESUS    CHRIST    IN    HUMAN    EXPERIENCE 

"She  has  gone  to  take  a  much-needed 
rest;"  so  the  editor  of  the  society  column 
writes.  When  a  business  or  professional 
man  takes  a  vacation  he  usually  leaves 
something  behind  to  show  for  his  burned-up 
energy,  but  when  Martha  takes  a  vacation 
she  leaves  little  or  nothing  behind,  save 
other  Marthas  plotting  her  social  downfall. 

The  twentieth  century  is  a  wonderful 
era;  it  is  like  living  with  Jack  and  his  bean- 
stalk, or  Aladdin  and  his  lamp.  But  with 
all  our  scientific  discoveries  we  have  not 
yet  learned  the  art  of  being  natural;  neither 
will  we  allow  our  neighbor  to  be  natural. 
We  approach  him  with  our  artificiality,  and 
he,  wishing  to  show  that  he  is  "wise," 
comes  back  with  his.  So  we  live  our  lives, 
not  as  we  want  to,  nor  with  a  view  of  per- 
sonal development  or  enjoyment,  but  in  an 
unreal  atmosphere.  The  lesser  has  some- 
how enlarged  its  uncanny  mouth  and 
stretched  its  slimy  maw  until  it  has  finally 
covered  the  greater. 

II 

This  "tyranny  of  things"  (thanks  to 
Rev.  Richard  Roberts  for  the  phrase)  grew 
as   Insidiously   as   temporal   power,    and   is 

162 


MARTHA:  THE  TYRANNY  OF  THINGS 

quite  as  despotic.  We  awoke  one  morning 
to  find  it  here,  and  it  refuses  to  be  driven 
away.  Were  it  simply  a  hobo  knocking 
timidly  at  our  back  door,  we  might  not 
have  any  great  concern  about  it.  But  in- 
stead of  a  battered  hat  it  wears  an  iron 
crown,  and  it  takes  possession  of  our 
homes  just  as  certainly  as  it  did  Martha's 
kitchen. 

To  dwell  at  length  upon  the  claims 
modern  business  makes  upon  our  manhood 
and  its  tremendous  draughts  upon  their 
energies  would  be  to  spread  out  facts  al- 
ready too  well  known.  Take  with  this  the 
demands  of  modern  society  upon  our  wives 
and  mothers,  and  it  will  be  seen  at  once 
that  what  gets  together  within  the  walls 
of  the  home  at  night  is  but  the  fag-ends  of 
individuals  who  have  given  their  strength 
to  something  other  than  that  which  should 
be  the  most  delightful  and  sacred  of  all — 
home.  When  the  grind  of  business  wears 
the  vitality  out  of  men,  and  women  have 
their  nerves  rubbed  raw  by  the  artificialities 
of  society,  it  is  small  wonder  that  the  home 
does  not  go  just  right.  Instead  of  creating 
and  fostering,  they  have  turned  it  into  a 
dormitory  and  a  lunchery.   Men  and  women 

163 


JESUS    CHRIST    IN    HUMAN    EXPERIENCE 

owe  something  more  to  their  companions 
than  the  grouches  of  business  and  the  snob- 
bery of  society,  and  if  these  make  of  us 
grouches  and  snobs,  then  both  should  be 
either  readjusted  or  abandoned.  Home 
can  not  be  made  by  carefully  swept  carpets 
and  properly  served  meals;  neither  does  a 
table  covered  by  the  latest  books  and  peri- 
odicals compensate  for  the  loss  of  comrade- 
ship one  has  the  right  to  feel  within  his 
own  walls.  The  "home  spirit"  is  not  a 
sudden  creation;  it  is  a  matter  of  growth, 
and  the  passing  of  time,  instead  of  con- 
stricting and  chilling  it,  should  deepen  and 
spiritualize  it.  When  Martha's  dinner  had 
been  served  and  her  company  had  departed, 
what  had  she  gained?  Aside  from  the  din- 
ner she  had  contributed  nothing,  and  had 
received  less.  She  had  chilled  the  spirit  of 
the  home  rather  than  enriched  it. 

Caring  for  the  home  is  not  an  end. 
This  does  not  mean  that  it  should  be  neg- 
lected. Dirt  and  disorder  are  not  con- 
ducive to  the  development  of  the  home 
spirit.  But  it  means  that  our  women  should 
care  for  their  homes,  not  that  they  may 
be  the  best  housekeepers,  but  that  they  may 
be    home-makers.      She    who    sweeps    and 

164 


MARTHA:   THE   TYRANNY   OF   THINGS 

dusts  simply  because  It  is  a  part  of  her 
housework  is  still  a  Martha  in  the  kitchen, 
but  if  she  sees  in  the  polished  surfaces  a 
reflection  of  the  Edenic  home,  and  if  her 
heart  beats  in  anticipation  of  the  blessed 
companionship  which  is  theirs  when  "he" 
returns  at  night,  then  even  the  tune  that 
she  hums  will  somehow  distill  itself  into 
the  very  air  and  linger  like  sweet  savor, 
blessing  and  enriching  the  occupants  of  that 
home. 

Pity  the  healthy  woman  who  rebels  at 
keeping  her  house  in  order;  likewise  pity 
the  one  who  spends  her  life  and  energy  in 
chasing  the  elusive  speck  on  the  parlor 
chair.  Both  are  in  bondage  to  the  tyrant. 
"Is  not  the  life  more  than  food,  and  the 
body  than  raiment?"  It  is  not  a  question 
of  whether  the  furniture  Is  free  from  dust, 
but  whether  the  sons  and  daughters  when 
they  go  forth  Into  life  will  take  the  rec- 
ollection of  a  parlor  faultlessly  arranged,  or 
the  blessed  memory  of  a  mother  who  chose 
the  better  part.  Will  those  sons  and  daugh- 
ters seek  to  re-create  in  their  homes  the 
splendid  atmosphere  in  which  their  char- 
acters were  developed,  or  will  home  have 
meant  to  them — nothing?    Only  God  knows 

165 


JESUS    CHRIST    IN    HUMAN    EXPERIENCE 

how  many  men  are  steadied  in  the  storm 
by  the  memory  of  an  old  home  and  the; 
splendid  ideals  it  stood  for. 

Ill 

"Things"  deal  with  superficialities.  A 
modern  writer  very  skillfully  and  interest- 
ingly enumerates  a  large  number  of  the 
improvements  which  we  have  at  our  finger- 
tips, and  then  sagely  inquires  if  the  race 
is  any  happier  than  when  it  was  in  ignorance 
of  them.  After  all,  has  modern  science 
and  invention  contributed  anything  to  the 
happiness  of  the  race?  Be  not  too  hasty 
in  your  reply.  We  are  getting  no  Gray's 
"Elegies,"  because  we  can  not  take  the  seven 
years  to  grow  them;  our  Shakespeares  and 
Tennysons  are  long  since  dead,  and,  what 
is  still  worse,  we  are  not  very  much  con- 
cerned about  it.  Superficiality  is  written  in 
large  letters  over  the  most  of  the  modern 
productions.  There  is  more  money  in  rag- 
time music  (?)  than  in  sonatas!  Thank 
God  for  the  few  men  who  refuse  to  prosti- 
tute their  art.  There  is  an  animal  content- 
ment of  which  the  rational  being  should 
never  be  guilty.  Mary's  contentment  was 
In  food  for  the  soul. 

166 


MARTHA:   THE   TYRANNY   OF   THINGS'^ 

It  is  the  trivialities  of  life  that  swamp 
the  spirit;  it  beats  its  wings  against  the  bars 
of  conventionality;  it  sickens  and  dies  in 
its  cramped  quarters  because  its  owner 
worships  things.  And  the  upshot  of  it  all 
is,  we  are  a  worn-out  race.  Worry  has 
drawn  his  lines  across  our  foreheads, 
around  our  eyes  and  down  from  the  corners 
of  our  mouths.  Where  we  are  not  bald 
we  are  gray;  and  to  what  purpose?  Be- 
cause we  are  slaves  of  things — things  that 
get  us  nothing  and  that  benefit  no  one  else. 
We  are  bubble-chasers  rather  than  gold- 
miners.  We  have  tried  to  fatten  our  souls 
on  froth  rather  than  getting  down  into 
the  substance. 

IV 

In  speaking  of  the  "one  thing,''  I  am  to 
some,  possibly  many,  as  one  that  dreams. 
I  speak  in  an  unknown  tongue,  and  there  is 
none  to  interpret.  "Mary  hath  chosen  the 
good  part  which  shall  not  be  taken  from 
her."  We  can  not  gain  spiritual  culture  by 
proxy.  And  our  complex  civilization  is 
making  It  Increasingly  difficult  for  men  to 
gain  It  first-handed.  We  herd  In  cities  by 
the  hundred  thousand;  we  shoot  ourselves 

167 


JESUS    CHRIST    IN    HUMAN    EXPERIENCE 

through  holes  in  the  ground  or  travel  by- 
lightning  express;  and  where  is  the  oppor- 
tunity for  meditation?  Can  this  awful 
tyranny  of  things  be  broken?  Possibly  not. 
But  what,  then,  is  to  become  of  our  friend- 
ships and  fellowships?  Are  these  great 
instincts  to  be  dwarfed  or  killed  outright? 
Mary  left  the  kitchen  at  the  sore  displeas- 
ure of  her  sister:  we  may  have  to  do  like- 
wise. It  is  more  Important  to  cultivate  a 
great  friendship  than  to  earn  a  salary  of 
ten  thousand  dollars;  it  is  more  important 
to  have  the  fellowship,  not  only  of  one's  own 
family,  but  with  other  spirits  who  are 
kindred,  than  to  own  the  best  business  block 
in  the  city.  When  "things"  bring  trouble 
and  anxiety,  then  we  need  to  break  away 
from  their  tyranny  and  seek  our  friends — 
and  the  great  Friend. 

O  thou  great  Teacher,  we  have  been 
the  slaves  of  things  so  long;  custom  has 
begotten  within  us  artificiality  and  unnatu- 
ralness.  We  have  become  superficial  and 
interested  only  in  the  things  of  the  body 
which  have  held  us  so  long  In  their  tyran- 
nous grasp.  Help  us  now  to  break  their 
chains.  We  pray  that  we  may  give  our 
souls  greater   attention,   and  that  the  one 

168 


MARTHA:   THE   TYRANNY    OF   THINGS 


thing — the  better  part — may  no  longer  be 
neglected,  but  that  we  may  quietly  and 
reverently  sit  at  thy  feet,  which  is  life's 
better,  richer  part. 


169 


XIV 
THE  SOUL  OF  A  SAMARITAN 

(Luke  17:  11-19.) 

^IXTHAT  splendid  literary  artists  were  the 
^  Gospel  narrators !  With  a  few  bold 
strokes  they  bring  the  whole  scene  before 
the  reader's  imagination  with  a  vividness 
almost  startling.  In  the  choice  words  that 
kindle,  as  well  as  words  that  convey  exact- 
ness of  meaning,  these  simple  narratives 
stand  without  parallel  in  the  literary  world. 
Seldom  are  their  phrases  awkward,  and  still 
more  seldom  are  they  ambiguous.  No  rule 
of  the  writer's  art  is  neglected.  Rid  the 
King  James  Version  of  the  terms  which  a 
growing  tongue  has  made  obsolete  during 
the  last  three  hundred  years,  and  it  is  still 
the  most  monumental  work  of  the  Anglo- 
Saxon.    And  yet  It  is  but  a  translation. 

Luke  states  that  Jesus  was  on  his  way  to 
Jerusalem,  for  the  Passover  season  was 
approaching.  It  was  a  solemn  convocation 
for  every  pious  Jew.     Its  bitter  herbs  re- 

170 


THE   SOUL   OF  A   SAMARITAN 

called  both  the  scourges  and  the  burdens 
which  the  Egyptian  taskmasters  laid  upon 
the  backs  of  the  Israelitish  fathers  in  the 
centuries  long  ago.  In  the  roasted  flesh  was 
the  memory  of  the  sacrificed  lamb  and  the 
bloody  door-posts  which  turned  aside  the 
angel  of  death.  And  what  history  Israel 
had  made  since  the  hand  of  Jehovah  had 
led  them  out  of  that  river  empire !  Some  of 
it  was  glorious,  ringing  with  power  and 
shimmering  with  splendor,  but  much  of  It 
must  be  read  sitting  in  the  ash-pit;  for 
through  it  Is  the  tread  of  the  Invading 
Egyptian,  the  flaunting  of  the  banners  of 
Assyria,  the  sheen  of  the  spears  of  Baby- 
lonia and  the  Insolence  of  Rome.  And  over 
and  through  It  all  Is  the  baleful  shadow  of 
that  monstrous  worship  which  was  for  the 
most  part  the  cause  of  all  their  sorrow — 
Baal. 

Gone  were  Moses  and  Joshua  and  the 
stirring  campaigns  they  led;  gone  David's 
power  and  Solomon's  splendor;  gone  the 
Temple  and  Its  chanting  priests;  gone  the 
strength  of  Israel's  army;  gone  Its  glory. 
There  Is  a  genuine  pathos  In  their  clinging 
to  such  Institutions  as  the  Roman  authority 
would  permit.     Pitiable  husk  of  a  proud 

171 


JESUS    CHRIST    IN    HUMAN    EXPERIENCE 

nation!  And,  what  was  still  worse,  occupy- 
ing the  very  middle  section  of  the  land  of 
Abraham  was  the  mongrel  race  of  Samaria, 
hating  Israel  so  bitterly  that  passage 
through  the  land  was  frequently  denied. 
Did  the  prophet  speak  an  untruth  when  he 
said:  "Israel  hath  received  double  for  all 
her  sins"?  But  at  this  time  there  seems  to 
have  been  a  lull  in  the  hostihties  of  the  two 
nations,  and  Jesus  "was  passing  along  the 
borders,"  when  there  came  to  his  ears  the 
old  cry,  "Have  mercy!"  from  ten  loath- 
some, hideous  creatures,  despised  and  driven 
out  by  their  fellow-men. 

I 

The  Western  world — thank  God! — 
knows  very  little  of  the  awfulness  of  leprosy, 
that  living  death  of  the  Orient.  We  ought 
to  pray  God  to  guide  the  skilled  eyes  and 
intellects  of  our  great  physicians  to  the  dis- 
covery of  the  remedy  for  that  awful  scourge 
of  the  East,  old  as  the  race,  attacking  both 
rich  and  poor. 

But  this  "alien"  was  isolated.  "It  is 
not  good  for  man  to  be  alone"  was  Jeho- 
vah's statement  as  lonely  Adam  wandered 
about     among    the     flowers     of    paradise. 

172 


THE  SOUL   OF  A   SAMARITAN 

There  is  no  man  so  complete  in  himself 
that  he  does  not  need  the  companionship 
and  association  of  others.  True,  some 
dam  up  every  outflowing  stream  and  barri- 
cade against  every  incoming  influence  and 
live  to  themselves;  but  love  unexpressed 
and  held  within  their  breasts  becomes  rancid 
and  bitter,  and  even  the  face  grows  hard 
and  devilish.  When  the  bright  spot  ap- 
peared on  this  man's  flesh  he  was  driven 
away  from  his  home  forever,  and  his  only 
companions  were  those  whose  bodies  were 
afflicted  like  unto  his.  Occasionally  a  well 
man  came  within  crying  distance,  as  had 
Jesus,  but  even  then  they  were  "standing 
afar  off." 

And  I  have  thought  of  the  aloofness 
of  men  from  each  other,  and  how  we 
(whether  compelled  to  or  not)  regard 
each  other  with  suspicion.  Instead  of  sup- 
posing, as  does  the  law,  that  every  man  is 
innocent  until  proven  guilty,  we  regard 
every  man  as  a  rascal  until  he  is  tested. 
We  hold  ourselves  **afar  off,"  and  we  see 
to  it  that  the  other  fellow  keeps  himself 
"afar  off"  also.  This  man  was  one  of  a 
small  coterie,  but  not  from  choice;  he  was 
not  enjoying  their  fellowship.   The  incidents; 

173 


JESUS    CHRIST    IN    HUMAN    EXPERIENCE 

of  this  narrative  show  that  he  was  a  far 
more  noble  and  generous  soul  than  those 
with  him.  He  was  the  Paul  among  the 
prisoners,  the  Jean  Valjean  among  the 
criminals,  the  Ben  Hur  among  the  galley- 
slaves.  This  forced  isolation  cut  deep  into 
his  sensitive  soul,  and  in  addition  to  the 
disease  eating  towards  his  vitals,  of  which 
he  was  conscious  all  the  time,  there  was 
that  sadder  realization- — he  had  no  friend. 
When  you  pass  a  battered  face  on  the 
street,  did  it  ever  occur  to  you  that  beneath 
It  was  a  heart  equally  bruised?  What 
possibilities  of  friendship  and  fellowship 
have  been  crushed  and  blasted  In  that 
heart!  Had  he  enjoyed  the  early  and 
latter  rain  Instead  of  the  parching  winds 
and  autumn  frosts,  he  might  have  put  the 
best  of  us  to  shame  with  his  greatness  of 
soul.  But  now  he  Is  "afar  off,"  on  the 
same  level  with  others — cynical,  sullen,  de- 
feated— the  last  drop  of  faith  In  humanity, 
or  In  himself,  wrung  from  his  heart — a 
heart  that  might  have  beaten  as  sympa- 
thetically as  John's.  It  Is  not  a  time  for 
God-thanking  that  we  are  not  as  other 
men,  but  rather  a  time  to  be  asking  If  our 
hands  have  held  the  Iron  sword  that  has 

174 


THE   SOUL   OF   A   SAMARITAN 

pierced  a  brother's  soul.  Possibly  /  have 
contributed  to  his  ^'leprosy." 

Life  consists  in  doing  things,  and  he 
is  not  a  man  who  is  content  in  idleness. 
Neither  were  we  intended  to  drive  our 
mental  and  physical  machinery  beyond  ca- 
pacity, using,  day  after  day,  the  last  drop 
of  energy.  If  there  was  anything  the 
Master  taught  without  mentioning  it,  it 
was  the  conservation  of  strength,  the  quiet 
seasons  with  friends,  the  hours  of  medita- 
tion to  which  every  person  Is  entitled,  and 
without  which  every  one  is  certain  to 
suffer  spiritual  as  well  as  intellectual 
necrosis.  If  there  Is  one  doctrine  to  be 
emphasized.  It  Is  the  gospel  of  relaxation; 
we  are  too  tense. 

But,  whether  the  muscles  be  physical  or 
mental,  they  must  not  be  allowed  to  grow 
flaccid  and  useless  through  inactivity.  We 
must  not  fear  to  attempt  the  greatest  tasks 
nor  refuse  to  offer  our  backs  to  the  heaviest 
burdens.  What  shall  be  said  of  the  man 
whose  soul  should  be  on  fire,  whose  heart 
should  be  bursting  with  a  mighty  desire 
for  God,  and  yet  Is  alien  to  his  purposes 
and  negative  to  his  Kingdom?  Everywhere 
are  great,  stalwart  minds,  lives  being  burned 

175 


JESUS    CHRIST    IN    HUMAN    EXPERIENCE 

up,  wasted  In  the  accumulation  of  the  things 
that  can  not  abide.  Those  lives  should  be 
used  for  Christ.  Men  and  women  lean 
upon  him  for  eternal  salvation,  and  yet 
stand  "afar  off"  when  the  call  to  service 
comes.  There  is  too  much  "alien"  within 
us  and  not  enough  Christian  patriotism. 

II 

There  was  a  distance  between  the  leper 
and  his  fellow-men  that  could  not  be 
bridged;  the  chasm  was  there.  The  analogy 
between  leprosy  and  sin  has  been  drawn 
so  many  times  that  I  shall  not  attempt  it 
here.  But  I  am  thinking  of  another  great 
company  who  "stand  afar  off."  It  may  be 
true  that  their  eyes,  literally,  are  not  on 
us;  that  their  hands  are  not  outstretched 
in  our  direction;  that  their  ears  are  not 
listening  for  our  words,  or  their  hearts 
beating  for  our  gospel;  they  "are  dead  in 
trespasses  and  sins."  These  are  they  from 
whom  our  great  city  churches  are  retreat- 
ing, the  polyglot  masses  who  live  between 
the  business  blocks  of  the  city  and  the  resi- 
dential boulevards,  "little  Bohemias,  Aus- 
trlas,  Russlas."  And  over  a  great  number 
of  these  even  the  Roman  Church  has  lost 

176 


THE   SOUL   OF   A   SAMARITAN 

its  power.  Our  American  population  has 
preserved  its  respectability  by  building  great 
churches  approachig  in  splendor  the  medieval 
cathedrals,  both  in  size  and  beauty;  but 
the  distance  between  the  church  on  the 
avenue  and  the  * 'little  Italy"  is  more  than 
ocean  wide.  If  the  American  churches  can 
not  Christianize  the  incoming  alien,  how 
can  we  expect  the  outgoing  missionary  with 
his  meager  equipment  to  Christianize  the 
heathen  world?  We  expect  our  missionaries 
to  do  for  millions  what  our  millions  do  not 
do  for  thousands.  The  average  city  Chris- 
tian is  farther  from  Russia  on  Blank  Street 
than  Russia  in  Warsaw.  We  thrill  at  the 
prospect  of  carrying  the  Protestant  gospel 
into  Poland,  but  we  do  not  have  the  faintest 
heart  flutter  at  the  splendid  opportunity  of 
opening  a  Bible  school  among  the  foreigners 
in  our  own  city.  We  "stand  afar  off"  and 
the  alien  "stands  afar  off,"  and  how  can 
God  bridge  the  distance?  He  may  do  it, 
but  we  can  be  certain  that  this  end  of  the 
span  will  not  rest  in  our  cold  hearts.  If 
there  is  from  us  no  outgoing  sympathy  to 
these  men  by  the  wayside,  then  there  will 
be  no  incoming  blessing  to  our  hearts. 

Men  have  gone  on  long  pilgrimages  to 

12  177 


JESUS    CHRIST    IN    HUMAN    EXPERIENCE 

get  the  rude  songs  of  the  American  Indians; 
they  have  endured  great  privations  to  record 
the  folk-songs  of  the  children  of  the  desert; 
and  they  have  sought,  even  at  the  peril  of 
their  lives,  the  weird  music  of  the  Congo. 
But  where  is  the  man  who  has  attempted 
the  analysis  of  the  pathos,  the  sob,  in  this 
alien  cry:  "Jesus,  Master,  have  mercy!"? 
No  one  save  he  who  has  had  it  wrung 
from  his  own  lips  In  bitterness,  and  who 
has  felt  as  well  the  insurge  of  divine  grace, 
knows  the  music  of:  "God  so  loved  the 
world  that  he  gave." 

It  is  not  the  cry  of  one  that  fears  the 
lash,  not  the  cry  of  the  cringing  coward, 
but  It  Is  the  cry  of  a  great  soul  sinking  for 
the  last  time.  Men  for  whom  the  Master 
died,  poor  and  weak  though  they  may  be, 
yet  they  are  the  children  of  the  Lord.  What 
practice  we  need  In  showing  mercy!  We 
are  such  an  abrupt  folk;  we  thrust  out  our 
card  stating  briskly  that  "we  have  come 
to  show  mercy" — professional  mercy- 
showers!  Or  we  do  what  Is  still  more 
unfeeling — delegate  our  mercy-showing  to 
associations  and  committees,  because  that 
rids  us  of  the  bother.  The  greatest  needs 
in  this  world  are  not  met  by  checks  on  the 

178 


THE   SOUL   OF   A   SAMARITAN 

bank;   men   are   not   seeking   money;    they 
are  seeking  friends, 

III 

The  ten  went  to  show  themselves  to  the 
priest,  and  as  they  went  they  were  healed. 
Wonderful  transformation!  But  nine  for- 
got their  Benefactor.  Only  this  ^'stranger" 
returned  to  Jesus.  If  to  him  life's  water 
had  been  Marah,  he  has  now  reached  the 
springs  of  Elim;  if  he  had  descended  into 
the  abyss  of  pain,  he  is  now  with  Jesus  on 
the  mountain-top  of  joy.  Need  we  search 
further  for  the  elements  of  greatness?  Did 
Jesus  ever  touch  human  experience  more 
vitally?  Gratefulness  is  one  of  the  very 
first  essentials  in  spiritual  development. 

Only  the  tithe  returned  after  the  won- 
derful cleansing.  Men  come  to  the  altars 
of  the  Lord  in  our  century  beating  their 
breasts  abjectly,  crying:  "Mercy!  Mercy!" 
Yet  the  majority  of  them  depart  never 
thinking  of  him  whose  divine  compassion 
has  loosed  them  from  the  pangs  of  death. 
How  long  since  you  cried  to  him  for  spir- 
itual health,  and  have  you  done  as  did  the 
nine?    Turn  back  to-day  and  praise  him. 

There  is   an   interesting  parallel  here: 

179 


JESUS    CHRIST    IN    HUMAN    EXPERIENCE 

"They  lifted  up  their  voices,  saying,  .  .  . 
mercy,"  and  he  glorified  God  *'with  a  loud 
voiced  He  glorified  God  with  the  same 
vigor  that  he  implored  mercy.  In  asking 
for  mercy  he  was  seeking  impression;  in 
glorifying  God  he  was  seeking  expression. 
It  would  seem  that  men  exhaust  their 
strength  in  asking,  for  they  are  usually 
silent  in  thanksgiving.  Christians  go  about 
in  silence  when  they  should  be  glorifying 
God  with  a  loud  voice,  and  the  loudest 
voice  is  not  necessarily  vocal.  The  most 
effective  preaching  is  not  the  harangue  of 
an  air-sawing,  red-faced  pulpiteer;  it  is 
rather  the  consecrated  servants  of  God  who 
in  a  prayerful  and  businesslike  manner  set 
about  the  fulfillment  of  our  Lord^s  last 
commandment  to  preach  the  gospel  to  every 
creature. 

We  expect  that  there  will  be  manifest 
gratitude,  and  we  are  prepared  for  the 
loud  voice  of  thanksgiving,  and  we  are 
not  surprised  when  he  falls  on  his  face 
before  the  Master.  The  narrative  flows 
along  naturally  and  smoothly  until,  with  a 
severe  jerk,  Luke  brings  the  reader  up 
with:  "And  he  was  a  Samaritan."  Every 
emphasis   Is   placed   on    ^^he^     The    nine, 

180 


THE   SOUL    OF   A    SAMARITAN 

who  evidently  were  Jews  and  from  whom 
gratitude  and  praise  would  be  expected, 
were  not  there;  but  the  one  who  showed 
such  profound  gratefulness  was  a  Samar- 
itan. What  depths  of  heart  Jesus  stirred 
in  the  most  unexpected  places.  Samaria 
was  a  sterile  field  and,  by  the  Jews,  to  be 
avoided,  but  Jesus,  by  chance  it  would 
seem,  revealed  two  very  rare  jewels — the 
woman  at  the  well,  and  this  leper — and 
what  might  be  said  of  the  good  Samaritan 
of  the  parable?  There  are  Samaritans 
all  about  you;  be  slow  to  condemn.  Pray 
God  that  you  are  not  found  among  the 
nine. 

Jesus,  thou  blessed  Master,  behold  us 
marked  and  scarred  by  sin,  some  of  our 
faculties  impaired,  some  ruined;  have  thou 
mercy  upon  us.  As  at  thy  word  the  cur- 
rents of  life  throbbed  through  the  bodies 
of  those  men  on  the  borders  of  despised 
Samaria,  so  at  thy  command  may  our 
spirits  answer  to  the  Holy  Spirit  whom  thou 
didst  send  into  the  world.  Give  us  loud 
voices  to  glorify  thee,  and  hearts  that  will 
not  forget,  and  a  faith  that  makes  us 
whole. 


181 


XV 

PONTIUS  PILATE:  THE  SIN  OF  COM- 
PROMISE 

(Luke  23:  13-25.) 

pOSSIBLY  Pontius  Pilate  has  had  more 
sermonic  mention  than  all  the  apostles 
save  Peter,  John  and  Paul.  Men  have  not 
hesitated  to  place  him  in  the  same  company 
with  Judas;  they  have  found  it  exceedingly 
difficult  to  deal  fairly  with  him  because  of 
the  part  he  took  in  the  execution  of  our 
Lord.  However,  let  us  attempt  a  dispas- 
sionate study  of  this  most  tragic  event  in 
the  life  of  the  procurator. 

Even  a  cursory  reading  of  these  brief 
New  Testament  accounts  will  reveal  a  very 
complex  situation,  as  well  as  some  of  the 
terrible  influences  which  beat  against  the 
Roman  judge.  .  To  a  limited  degree  the 
reader  is  conscious  of  the  fanatical  spirit 
and  the  intolerant  bigotry  of  that  Oriental 
mob  which  surged  about  the  procurator's 
hall   of  judgment.      He   is   conscious,    too, 

182 


THE   SIN    OF   COMPROMISE 

that  back  of  that  rabble  was  a  group  of 
devilishly  cunning  priests  industriously  feed- 
ing the  mob  spirit  in  the  name  of  religion 
and  patriotism,  and  it  was  by  the  mob 
these  priests  knew  they  could  obtain  their 
insane  desire — the  death  of  the  Prophet. 

And  yet  we  find  it  practically  impossible 
to  project  ourselves  back  over  the  centuries 
and  understand  the  position  in  which  Pilate 
found  himself  that  most  memorable  Friday 
morning  in  the  history  of  the  Hebrew  race. 
For  days  the  Jewish  pilgrims  by  the  thou- 
sand had  been  pouring  into  the  Holy  City. 
Unless  the  governor  had  a  considerable 
body  of  troops  at  call,  a  mob  was  a  very 
nasty  thing  to  handle  at  any  time,  much  less 
at  the  present,  when  Its  number  might  very 
quickly  run  into  thousands.  It  might  de- 
velop Into  a  general  resurrection  costing  the 
Roman  Government  great  trouble  and  ex- 
pense, and  Pilate  was  responsible  to  the 
Emperor. 

Pilate's  personal  and  official  history, 
together  with  what  he  might  have  done, 
does  not  concern  this  discussion.  Any  one 
interested  In  the  former  Is  referred  to  the 
encyclopedia,  and  If  In  the  latter,  to  the 
speculations  of  his  own  Imagination.     We 

183 


JESUS    CHRIST    IN    HUMAN    EXPERIENCE 

have  the  record  of  what  he  did,  and  that 
is  what  concerns  us. 

I 

If  any  have  the  idea  that  Pilate  was 
an  incompetent,  let  them  consult  the  records 
of  his  official  life.  He  had  a  long  term 
of  service  under  Tiberius  Caesar.  The  very- 
fact  that  he  was  assigned  to  what  was 
perhaps  the  most  difficult  province  in  the 
Roman  Empire  shows  that  he  was  by  no 
means  a  man  of  ordinary  ability.  Where 
was  there  a  people  with  a  richer  history, 
with  more  ancient  traditions;  a  people  more 
fanatically  religious,  or  who  possessed  a 
more  bitter  contempt  for  their  national 
neighbors,  than  Israel?  Clearly,  then,  he 
who  represented  the  Roman  Government 
among  such  a  nation  must  possess  both  tact 
and  judgment. 

Yet  with  all  his  ability  Pilate  was  simply 
a  man,  and  this  his  critics  seem  to  forget. 
If  a  man's  position  requires  that  he  take 
the  initiative  in  great  questions,  that  he 
pass  final  judgment  on  important  points, 
that  he  administer  government,  there  is 
with  all  this  the  possibility  of  mistake.  If 
the  issues  with  which  he  deals  are  so  im- 

184 


THE   SIN   OF   COMPROMISE 

portant,  then  the  mistakes  he  makes  will 
be  correspondingly  serious.  At  best  the 
mind  of  man  is  fallible. 

Little  did  Pilate  suppose  that  his  fame 
throughout  all  generations  would  rest  upon 
some  two  or  three  hours'  association  with 
an  obscure  Galilean.  Yet  had  it  not  been 
for  this  incident,  what  would  the  twentieth- 
century  world  know  of  him?  Does  it  know 
his  predecessors?  We  have  to  ransack  his- 
tory to  find  even  their  names.  In  the  process 
of  the  development  of  God's  purpose  Pilate 
played  his  part,  not  as  a  weakling,  but  as  a 
typical  Roman  official. 

If  you  can,  look  through  Pilate's  eyes, 
feel  with  his  heart.  If  the  Jew  hated  the 
Roman,  then  the  Roman  had  an  equally 
profound  contempt  for  the  son  of  Israel. 
They  were  to  the  procurator  nothing  save 
a  means  by  which  to  gather  a  fortune,  and 
that  quickly.  This  accomplished,  he  in- 
tended to  return  to  the  city  by  the  Tiber 
and  enjoy  life  as  a  Roman  patrician. 

But  on  this  Friday  morning  of  the 
Passover  week,  before  the  morning  sun- 
light had  scarcely  touched  the  spires  and 
domes  of  the  Holy  City,  members  of  the 
Sanhedrin,  headed  by  the  chief  priests,  to- 

185 


JESUS    CHRIST    IN    HUMAN    EXPERIENCE 

gather  with  such  others  as  were  interested 
and  curious,  brought  a  prisoner  before  the 
governor  with  the  demand  that  he  pass 
immediate  sentence — the  death  penalty. 
Pilate's  first  words  were  what  would  be 
expected  from  any  upright  official:  *'What 
accusation  bring  ye  against  this  man?'' 
Their  reply,  "If  he  were  not  an  evil-doer 
we  should  not  have  delivered  him  over  to 
you,"  was  so  indefinite  that  the  judge  sought 
further  evidence.  They  had  no  charge  save 
that  they  hated  the  Christ,  but  they  thought 
because  they — the  Sanhedrin — demanded 
Christ's  death,  Pilate  would  ratify  their 
decision  without  further  examination.  But 
the  Roman  was  a  better  official  than  they 
supposed!  As  they  had  no  definite  charge, 
he  questioned  the  prisoner,  with  the  result 
that  Pilate,  pagan  that  he  was,  understood 
that  Christ  had  done  nothing  worthy  of 
death,  and  so  announced:  "I  find  no  fault 
in  him."  Could  better  official  conduct  be 
expected? 

Every  man  is  either  in  the  mob  accusing 
Jesus,  or  In  the  Praetorlum  declaring:  "I 
find  no  fault  In  him."  Men  rail  at  him; 
they  pervert  and  distort  his  teaching;  they 
accuse  him  falsely;  yet  when  their  motives 

186 


THE  SIN  OF   COMPROMISE 

are  laid  bare,  it  is  found  that  the  prince  of 
darkness  dwells  in  their  hearts.  Satan  found 
nothing  in  the  Christ,  though  he  tried  him 
by  temptation  and  death. 

II 

Here  the  governor  should  have  stopped. 
Thus  far  he  would  have  been  safe,  with 
no  blot  against  him  and  nothing  to  explain. 
Had  he  shown  the  same  iron  purpose  he 
did  an  hour  or  two  later  when  he  cut  the 
priests  off  sharply  with,  *'What  I  have 
written  I  have  written,"  the  story  would 
have  been  very  different.  But  he  wanted 
to  throw  a  sop  to  the  Jewish  hierarchy,  so 
he  said:  *'I  will  therefore  chastise  him  and 
let  him  go."  If,  as  he  had  just  announced, 
he  found  no  fault  in  him,  then  where  in  the 
name  of  justice  had  he  the  right  to  "chas- 
tise him"?  He  suggested  a  compromise, 
and  the  keen-eyed  devils  of  Jewry  saw  it. 
If  the  governor  were  willing  to  chastise  an 
innocent  man,  he  could  be  forced  further 
if  their  clamor  were  loud  enough.  When 
a  man  compromises  on  the  right,  his  self- 
respect  bids  him  adieu,  and  this  was  the 
beginning  of  Pilate's  real  trouble.  Then 
he  went  still  further  in  the  compromise  in 

187 


JESUS    CHRIST    IN    HUMAN    EXPERIENCE 

setting  the  two  prisoners  before  the  mob  and 
giving  them  their  choice.  The  priests  had 
''fixed"  the  multitude,  and  their  hoarse  cry 
at  once  answered:  "Away  with  this  man; 
crucify  him!" 

There  has  never  been  a  more  awful 
hour  in  the  history  of  the  race;  never  have 
more  horrible  and  blasphemous  screams 
issued  from  the  throats  of  men  than  those 
that  came  from  the  mouths  of  this  fiendish 
mob  stirred  up  by  the  spiritual  ( ?)  leaders 
of  Israel.  This  was  the  ominous  roar  of  the 
oncoming  storm;  each  moment  it  increased 
in  fury  despite  the  efforts  of  Pilate  to  calm 
it.  Jesus  spoke  to  the  stormy  waves  of 
Galilee  and  they  obeyed,  but  the  Roman 
procurator  could  neither  speak  nor  threaten 
this  storm  into  submission.  If  ever  hell 
turned  itself  inside  out  and  spued  its  venom 
over  the  earth,  it  was  at  this  tragic  hour. 
See  the  miter  of  the  high  priest  as  with 
stately  tread  he  moved  before  the  multi- 
tude; see  the  company  of  lesser  priests,  the 
ragged  rabble,  the  troubled  Roman  judge, 
and  see  the  silent,  majestic  Christ;  hear  the 
pandemonium  and  the  blasphemous  shrieks. 
Lear  and  Macbeth  and  Othello  are  cheap 
and  colorless  in  comparison.     Three  times 

188 


THE  SIN  OF  COMPROMISE 

the  governor  raises  the  question,  and  three 
times  his  voice  is  drowned  in  the  insane 
roar  of  the  tempest.  In  the  midst  of  all 
that  hissing,  seething,  boiling  mass  stands 
Jesus,  the  calmest  of  all.  He  had  prayed 
It  through  the  night  before  in  the  garden 
of  Gethsemane.  Even  now  across  the  cen- 
turies, in  the  ebb  of  the  tempest,  we  can 
catch  the  first  words  of  the  governor's  ques- 
tion, "Why,  what  evil — ?"  and  then  comes 
the  mad  surge,  stronger  and  fiercer  each 
time:  *'Crucify  him,  crucify  him!  Away 
with  him!  Give  us  BarabbasI"  God  pity 
the  Roman!  He  was  trying,  but  with 
miserable  success.  Reason  with  that  mob? 
Reason  with  a  Dakota  blizzard?  Reason 
with  a  wounded  grizzly?  Reason  with  the 
tropical  sun?  Pilate  was  but  a  man;  con- 
demn him  not  too  severely. 

Ill 

When  Pilate  proposed  the  compromise 
he  set  the  wedge,  and  the  enemies  of  Jesus 
hammered  it  most  vigorously,  and  there 
could  be  no  doubt  as  to  the  result.  "Their 
voices  prevailed."  Our  axiom,  the  truth 
of  which  Is  seriously  questioned,  is:  "The 
voice  of  the  people  is  the  voice  of  God." 

189 


JESUS    CHRIST    IN    HUMAN    EXPERIENCE 

But  In  this  case  the  voice  of  the  people  Is 
none  other  than  the  echo  of  hell.  Do  you 
say  that  this  mob  was  not  representative 
of  Israel?  But  the  chief  priests  were 
leading  it!  It  may  be  possible  that  the 
good  people  were  still  in  their  homes,  and, 
again,  it  may  be  true  that  they  were  not ! 

When  the  people  think  out  a  question 
and  act  sanely  and  dispassionately,  then 
there  may  be  some  truth  in  the  axiom.  But 
the  occasions  when  men  do  that  are  patheti- 
cally few.  We  are  a  ^'touch-and-go"  race. 
If  a  skillful  orator  makes  an  address  that 
pleases  us,  up  go  our  hats  and  In  go  our 
votes,  and  that  passes  as  "the  voice  of 
God."  Yet  this  is  the  voice  that  spells  out 
defeat.  Democracy  gives  men  liberty  of 
speech  and  act,  but,  unfortunately.  It  can 
not  give  them  brains!  Scarcely  seven  days 
before,  this  very  mob  were  casting  their 
garments  and  strewing  palm  branches  be- 
fore Jesus  as  he  entered  the  city,  crying: 
"Hosanna!  Blessed  is  he  that  cometh  In 
the  name  of  the  Lord."  And  now  they 
are  yelling  themselves  hoarse  for  his  de- 
struction; and  yet  *'the  people  have  spoken." 
So?  These  are  the  voices  that  prevail  In 
our   cities.    In   jury   verdicts,    In   municipal 

190 


THE   SIN   OF   COMPROMISE 

elections;    and    they    always    mean    defeat. 

Matthew  says  a  "tumult  was  arising," 
and  Mark  says  Pilate  "wished  to  content 
the  multitude."  But  now  all  opportunity 
for  retreat  was  gone  forever;  the  kitten 
had  suddenly  become  a  tiger.  Spectacularly 
the  governor  washed  his  hands  before  them, 
but  what  cared  they  for  his  dramatics  so 
long  as  they  had  Jesus  in  their  power? 
There  was  but  one  right  course  and  of  that 
Pilate  was  well  aware,  else  why  so  reluctant 
to  proceed  with  the  trial? 

The  last  line  is  the  saddest  of  all,  "But 
Jesus  he  delivered  up  to  their  will;"  that 
is,  he  threw  the  lamb  into  the  hyena's  den. 

In  touching  the  procurator's  experience 
Jesus  showed  him  pitifully  weak,  wavering 
between  the  straight  course  and  compromise, 
and  that  upon  a  question  of  life  and  death, 
and  finally  falling  into  a  pit  his  enemies 
had  digged  for  him.  It  shows  him  con- 
demning the  innocent  and  bidding  the  guilty 
go  free;  it  reveals  him  the  assassin  of  inno- 
cence and  virtue  and  proffering  the  olive 
branch  to  treason  and  murder.  Such  official 
acts  as  his  are  the  cause  of  mobs,  anarchy, 
communism  and  revolution.  Sifted  down, 
Pilate  was  the  cause  of  the  crucifixion  of 

191 


JESUS    CHRIST    IN    HUMAN    EXPERIENCE 

Jesus;  he  wavered,  and  that  was  like  oil 
on  the  flames. 

When  the  Christ  touches  your  experi- 
ence what  will  he  find — amazing  weakness, 
or  splendid  strength?  No  matter  how 
great  our  ability  may  be,  or  how  important 
the  position  we  hold,  there  must  be  such 
strength  of  heart  that  compromise  is 
impossible. 

O  blessed  Christ,  thou  standest  in  our 
judgment-hall  with  closed  lips,  but  with 
open  eyes  and  heart,  watching  our  struggles. 
The  shrieks  of  the  assassins  of  virtue  and 
innocence  are  hissing  from  the  throats  of 
the  rabble.  They  are  seeking  to  kill  thee 
in  our  modern  life  and  to  rob  the  suffering 
sons  of  men  of  thy  holy  influence  forever. 
Help  us  not  to  waver  in  this  tumult,  nor 
be  frightened  into  suggesting  compromise. 
Give  us  the  strength  to  drive  them  from 
the  judgment-seat,  that  thou  mayest  have 
the  glory  and  honor  which  are  thine. 


192 


XVI 

SIMON  OF  CYRENE:  COMPULSORY 
SERVICE 

(Matt.  27:32.) 

"LTAMLET,  prince  of  Denmark,"  never 
had  any  bodily  existence,  yet  he  Is  by 
far  the  greatest  character  In  the  literary 
world.  Neither  Napoleon,  whose  military 
genius  thrilled  all  Europe,  nor  yet  Wash- 
ington, whose  statesmanship  created  the 
new  empire  of  the  Western  Hemisphere, 
has  commanded  half  the  serious  attention 
given  this  creature  of  Shakespeare's  imagina- 
tion, whose  existence  is  confined  to  some 
130  pages  written  more  than  three  hundred 
years  ago.  Think  ''Tragedy"  and  you  think 
*'Hamlet." 

But  for  real  tragedy  the  story  told  in 
the  closing  chapters  of  the  Gospels  is  at 
the  same  time  the  most  amazing  as  well  as 
the  most  heart-gripping  known  in  the  annals 
of  men.  Beside  it  "Hamlet"  is  an  idle 
tale.     Neither  history  nor  the  imagination 

13  193 


JESUS    CHRIST    IN    HUMAN    EXPERIENCE 

has  ever  approximated  these  terrible  scenes. 
From  Gethsemane's  garden  to  Joseph's  tomb 
there  is  that  stately,  yet  sublimely  awful, 
procession  of  calamitous  events.  In  this 
drama  there  is  no  "drunken  porter,"  as  in 
"Macbeth,"  or  no  "fool,"  as  in  "Lear"; 
there  is  no  relaxation,  for  the  stage  is  set 
and  the  atmosphere  grows  each  moment 
more  tense  and  stifling.  Portentous  clouds 
boil  up  on  the  horizon  and  are  caught  and 
whirled  and  torn  by  the  oncoming  tempest. 
There  is  the  angry  quiver  of  the  lightning 
and  the  muffled  growl  of  the  thunder  in  the 
darkening  heavens,  and  then  the  storm 
breaks  in  crashing  fury.  In  its  ebb  and 
flow  one  hears  the  shrill  crowing  of  the 
cock  and  the  sob  of  the  broken-hearted  dis- 
ciple; he  catches  something  of  the  coarse 
buffoonery  of  the  soldiers  and  the  despair- 
ing wail  of  the  traitor;  the  splash  of  the 
stupefying  liquid  dropping  back  into  the 
vessel,  and,  most  terrible  of  all,  the  sharp 
staccato  of  the  hammer  on  the  spikes. 

Do  you  ask  to  see  hell  at  work?  Then, 
do  not  follow  the  imagination  of  Milton  or 
Dante,  but  follow  the  Christ  to  the  cross.  In 
the  barracks  the  cohort  of  Roman  soldiers 
gather;  they  remove  the  garments  of  Jesus 

194 


COMPULSORY   SERVICE 


and  throw  about  his  shoulders  an  old  scarlet 
and  blue  military  cloak.  They  plait  a 
crown  of  thorns  and  press  it  down  upon 
his  head;  they  smite  him  with  reeds  and 
the  palms  of  their  hands;  they  spit  upon 
him.  Mockingly  they  kneel  and  raise  high 
their  ribald  shouts:  "Hail,  king  of  the 
Jews!"  Tiring  of  their  horseplay,  they 
reclothe  Jesus  and  lead  him  forth  to  be 
crucified.  As  the  procession  passed  out  of 
the  gate  of  the  city,  Jesus  fell  beneath  the 
weight  of  the  cross.  Seeing  it  was  physi- 
cally impossible  for  him  to  carry  it  farther, 
the  officer  in  charge  laid  hold  on  Simon 
of  Cyrene  and  compelled  him  to  "bear  the 
cross  after  Jesus." 

I 

"Seek,  and  ye  shall  find,"  said  Jesus; 
but  we  often  find  what  we  are  not  seeking 
because  we  are  strongly  human  and  are  In 
search  of  those  things  the  possession  of 
which  we  think  will  give  us  pleasure. 
Trouble-hunting  Is  a  melancholy  pastime, 
and  he  who  engages  In  It  Is  afflicted  with 
a  very  unfortunate  mania.  Man  by  nature 
chooses  the  sunshine.  And  In  his  choice  of 
a  business   or   a  profession   he  selects   the 

195 


JESUS    CHRIST    IN    HUMAN    EXPERIENCE 

one  that  promises  the  maximum  of  satis- 
faction and  the  minimum  of  discomfort. 
Yet  hard  work  is  no  barrier  to  enjoyment; 
in  fact,  we  are  the  happiest  when  we  work 
the  hardest,  providing  the  task  is  to  our 
liking.  Who  has  not  heard  of  the  long 
hours  Mr.  Edison  spends  in  his  laboratory, 
working  on  some  important  invention — in- 
credible hours  without  sleep  or  even  food? 
It  is  the  thing  a  man  is  compelled  to  do  that 
makes  him  fret  and  that  ages  him  prema- 
turely. 

Were  I  seeking  an  earthly  paradise  I 
would  betake  myself  to  the  South  Sea 
Islands,  where  Nature's  arms  are  always 
open,  where  the  soft  sea  breeze  kisses  the 
rose  and  the  magnolia,  where  food  is  hang- 
ing from  every  branch  and  the  only  shelter 
needed  is  the  shadow  of  the  palm.  By  the 
blue  waves  of  an  eternally  summer  sea, 
under  a  bluer  sky,  I  would  "quaff  this  kind 
nepenthe"  and  dream,  but  never  work, 
because  Nature  supplies  my  every  need. 

Yet  with  all  this  splendid  prodigality, 
the  South  Sea  Islands  have  not  produced 
any  great  men.  It  takes  a  condition  quite 
the  reverse  from  bright  skies  and  tropical 
landscapes    to    develop    art   and   inventioHo 

196 


COMPULSORY   SERVICE 


It  is  significant  that,  practically  without 
exception,  all  the  great  civilizations  have 
been  developed  in  the  temperate  zone, 
where  men  have  been  compelled  to  meet 
daily  the  rough  changes  of  climate — burn- 
ing heat,  bitter  cold,  raging  tempest.  From 
these  they  had  to  have  protection  and  shel- 
ter, hence  the  philosophy  of  clothes  and 
the  evolution  of  the  home  with  its  conve- 
niences and  decorations.  Climate  is  a  very 
compelling  force  among  men. 

What  is  true  of  our  external  relation- 
ships is  also  true  of  our  character  develop- 
ment. The  easy  path  does  not  make  great 
Christians  any  more  than  the  salubrious 
climate  of  the  South  Sea  Islands  makes 
great  men.  Here  is  the  example  of  Jesus: 
it  is  the  way  of  blood,  of  torture,  of  death. 
He  had  a  goal  before  him,  but  to  reach  it 
he  had  to  pass  through  Pilate's  judgment- 
hall  and  up  the  steep  ascent  of  Calvary.  In 
our  Christian  development  we  may  expect 
grim  faces  at  the  doorway  summoning  us 
to  the  distasteful,  perhaps  the  repugnant,  and 
pointing  to  the  seemingly  impossible,  and 
thither  we  must  go. 

Attempt  such?  And  why  not?  If  the 
surroundings  are  hostile,  then  they  should 

197 


JESUS    CHRIST    IN    HUMAN    EXPERIENCE 

be  a  stirring  challenge  to  meet  them.  It  is 
said  that  Beethoven  "loved  to  let  the  winds 
and  the  storms  beat  upon  his  bare  head,  and 
see  the  dazzling  play  of  the  lightning." 
There  was  something  about  the  riotous  fury 
of  the  tempest  that  called  to  his  genius.  So 
I  believe  great  resistance  is  called  forth  by 
the  presence  of  great  issues,  the  decision  of 
which  means  destiny. 

II 

Simon  was  probably  a  merchant  from 
the  North  African  province  of  Cyrene  and 
had  come  to  Jerusalem  for  business  and 
religion,  making  his  business  visit  at  the 
time  of  the  Passover.  He  little  suspected 
that  an  ignoble  service  would  be  thrust  upon 
him,  yet  a  service  which  would  forever 
glorify  his  name.  In  this  act  the  reader 
gets  a  glimpse  of  the  insolence  of  Rome. 
Simon  was  a  peaceful  citizen  from  a  far- 
away province,  intent  on  his  own  business 
and  apparently  going  in  the  opposite  direc- 
tion. Instead  of  taking  one  of  that  yelling 
rabble  which  had  so  clamorously  demanded 
the  execution  of  Christ,  and  laying  the 
beams  of  the  cross  upon  him,  the  rough 
hand  of  authority  was  laid  upon  one  who 

198 


COMPULSORY   SERVICE 


was  not  only  not  connected  with  the  tragedy, 
but  who  was  Ignorant  of  the  whole  proce- 
dure, for  *'he  was  coming  in  from  the 
country." 

Jesus  was  suffering  as  one  of  the  most 
Ignominious  criminals  of  the  empire,  and 
to  be  ''compelled"  (note  the  word)  to  walk 
after  him  and  bear  the  instrument  of  tor- 
ture Implied  that  Simon  was  of  the  same 
class,  or  was,  at  least.  In  sympathy  with 
Christ's  teaching  and  work. 

But  may  there  not  have  been  a  reason 
why  Simon  was  drafted  Into  service?  Men 
will  stop  to  look  at  almost  any  kind  of  a 
procession,  and  Simon  was  human.  There 
Is  also  a  latent  reservoir  of  pity  In  the  heart 
of  every  man,  unless  cruelty  has  dried  It  up. 
When  the  Cyrenian  saw  the  weakened 
Christ  sway  and  fall  beneath  the  weight  of 
the  cross,  saw  the  pallid  face  and  the 
dark  hair  matted  with  dust  and  blood, 
could  he  do  other  than  stop?  What  would 
you  have  done?  Is  It  Improbable  that  an 
unconscious  cry  escaped  his  lips,  and  this 
was  what  called  the  soldiers'  attention  to 
him?     "Pity  Him?  then  bear  his  burden." 

Can  any  man  look  upon  this  portrait 
of  the  suffering  Christ  and  not  be  profound- 

199 


JESUS    CHRIST    IN    HUMAN    EXPERIENCE^ 

ly  stirred?  No  matter  how  hard  may  be 
his  heart,  there  is  something  tremendously 
gripping  about  this  narrative,  and  he  comes 
back  to  it  again  and  again. 

It  is  true  that  this  sad  story  holds  the 
attention  and  arouses  the  sympathetic  emo- 
tions, but,  if  that  is  all,  then  Hugo  and 
Dickens  do  as  much.  The  strength  of  it 
is  not  in  its  literary  finish,  nor  yet  in  its 
remarkable  simplicity;  it  is  rather  in  the 
sublime  facts  it  portrays  and  the  marvelous 
results  it  secures;  it  makes  of  men  new 
creatures.  When  I  read  "Quo  Vadis"  or 
*'Ben  Hur"  I  am  interested  for  the  time, 
but  I  can  lay  the  volume  aside  and  the 
impression  soon  passes,  but  not  so  with 
this.  There  is  something  so  compelling 
about  it  that  it  takes  hold  of  every  red 
corpuscle  and  clutches  every  muscular  fiber; 
and,  more  than  that,  it  filters  down  into  that 
mysterious  alembic,  the  mind,  where  Reason 
and  Will  sit  as  hooded  judges,  and  there 
preaches  its  solemn  truth.  Flee  from  it? 
Perhaps;  but  you  will  return  and  say  with 
Thomas:  *'My  Lord  and  my  God." 

It  revolutionized  Paul's  life.  It  sent 
him  journeying  across  miasmic  plains  and 
through   robber-infested   hills;   it   sent   him 

200 


COMPULSORY   SERVICE 


over  rough  seas  and  on  weary  pilgrimages. 
Like  his  illustrious  Jewish  sire,  he  "went 
out  not  knowing  whither  he  went"  and  not 
knowing  what  was  before  him,  save  bonds 
and  afflictions  in  every  city;  the  dungeon 
yawned  for  him  and  the  arena  awaited.  Yet 
when  the  executioner's  ax  was  raised  above 
him  he  shouted  triumphantly:  "I  have  fought 
a  good  fight;  there  is  laid  up  for  me  the 
crown."  Paul  was  compelled  to  go  with 
Jesus;  he  could  not  do  otherwise  and  be 
true  to  himself.  And  ten  thousand  others 
have  followed  in  his  train  because  they 
could  not  resist  his  passionate  appeal,  his 
matchless  heroism,  his  splendidly  rounded 
character  and  his  enthusiastic  teaching,  as 
well  as  his  magnanimous  invitation  and 
wonderful  promises.  He  is  the  delight  of 
the  righteous  and  the  despair  of  the  wicked. 
He  has  changed  the  despotisms  of  earth 
into  great,  liberty-breathing  democracies,  and 
has  taught  men  to  love  their  neighbors  as 
themselves. 

Ill 

When  we  make  a  historical  study  of  the 
events  In  the  life  of  our  Lord,  particularly 
those  in  the  last  two  or  three  days  prior  to 

201 


JESUS    CHRIST    IN    HUMAN    EXPERIENCE 

the  crucifixion,  there  are  many  places  where 
we  would  have  been  glad  to  have  stepped 
in  and  helped  him.  If  those  who  were 
with  him  could  have  seen  him  as  we  see 
him  through  the  experiences  of  twenty  cen- 
turies, with  all  the  blessed  influence  he  has 
exerted  upon  mankind,  as  well  as  the  hope 
and  comfort  he  has  been  to  the  world,  they, 
too,  might  have  treated  him  very  differently. 
But  human  nature  is  one  of  the  few  things 
that  remain  constant,  and,  were  the  condi- 
tions reversed  and  we  placed  back  two 
thousand  years,  we  might  be  found  among 
the  rabble.  By  the  grace  of  God  we  are 
what  we  are. 

For  centuries  the  Messianic  hope 
throbbed  In  the  hearts  of  all  patriotic 
Jews.  Occasionally  the  spirit  of  prophecy 
stirred  the  breast  of  a  vine-dresser  or  a 
herdsman,  and  he  broke  the  silence  with 
thrilling  recitals  of  His  mission  and  mag- 
nificent descriptions  of  His  character, 
couched  in  wonderful  imagery  and  breath- 
ing with  poetic  power.  But  when  the 
Messiah  actually  stood  before  their  eyes, 
he  possessed  no  form  or  beauty  that  they 
desired  him;  he  was  despised  and  rejected, 
this  Man  of  sorrows.     If  they  had  *'known 

202 


COMPULSORY   SERVICE 


him,"  the  high  priest  might  not  have  incited 
the  worthless  rabble  to  cry:  *'Crucify!" 
Simon  would  have  gladly  borne  the  cross, 
and  Judas  would  not  have  sold  him  for 
eighteen  dollars  because  he  "esteemed  him 
not,"  nor  would  his  disciples  have  forsaken 
him;  in  short,  the  crucifixion  would  not  have 
taken  place. 

There  are  few  things  sadder  than  to  be 
willfully  and  persistently  misunderstood.  It 
would  seem  that  Jesus  was  never  quite  able 
to  get  his  purposes  "over,"  as  the  drama- 
tists would  say.  His  brothers  and  sisters 
misunderstood  him;  his  disciples  were  "slow 
of  heart";  the  leading  men  of  his  people 
accused  him  of  having  a  devil.  How 
lonely  was  the  Son  of  God;  none  but  the 
Father  understood  him. 

And  as  late  in  the  history  of  Christianity 
as  this,  men  are  still  trying  to  make  Jesus 
say  perverse  things.  We  owe  it  to  Christ 
as  a  matter  of  common  justice  to  study  his 
claims  most  carefully  before  we  criticize 
adversely.  Men  continue  to  say  harsh  and 
unkind  things  about  the  Church  and  all  it 
is  supposed  to  represent,  when,  in  fact, 
they  have  never  given  the  subject  an  hour's 
honest   attention.      This    is    the   class    that 

203 


JESUS    CHRIST    IN    HUMAN    EXPERIENCE 

crucified  Jesus,  that  clamored  for  the  death 
of  Paul,  that  was  the  tool  in  the  hands  of 
cunning  and  infamous  churchmen  during 
the  Inquisition  to  crush  men  who  dared 
think,  that  fought  (vainly,  thank  God!) 
the  Reformation.  These  are  the  ones  who 
think  the  caricatures  of  Puck  and  Judge 
represent  real  types  of  the  Christian  min- 
istry! Neither  the  Church  nor  its  ministry 
is  above  criticism  (in  fact,  it  is  invited)  ; 
but  it  makes  a  difference  whether  it  is  a 
sage  or  an  ass  that  speaks.  *  Let  the  critic 
be  constructive. 

Let  us  also  apply  this  principle  of  criti- 
cism to  individuals  as  well.     It  is  easy  to 
attribute  a  man's  acts  to  base  motives  and 
to   charge  him   with   teaching   a   pernicious 
doctrine.      But  he  who   does   so   would  do 
well  to  remember  the  word  of  Jesus:  "With 
what  judgment  ye  judge  ye  shall  be  judged." 
Simon   bore    the   burden   of   Jesus,    but 
\    Jesus    was   bearing    a    greater   burden    for 
1^  ^  Simon.     It  is  that  awful  burden  that  presses 
Hi  every  man  to  the  earth,  the  burden  of  sin. 
I  I  "iSiw''  has  been  sandpapered  and  puttied  and 
painted    and   whitewashed    and    called   soft 
names  so  long  that  our  modern  world  is  in 
danger  of  thinking  the  old  serpent  is  tooth- 

204 


COMPULSORY   SERVICE 


less  and  harmless;  that  It  is  only  a  bogey 
from  the  Middle  Ages  to  frighten  the  inno- 
cent. Before  that  conclusion  is  accepted 
as  final,  note  these  words  carefully:  "Then 
the  soldiers  of  the  governor  took  Jesus 
into  the  Prastorium,  and  gathered  unto  him 
the  whole  band.  And  they  stripped  him, 
and  put  on  him  a  scarlet  robe.  And  they 
platted  a  crown  of  thorns  and  put  it  upon 
his  head,  and  a  reed  in  his  right  hand;  and 
they  kneeled  down  before  him,  and  mocked 
him,  saying,  Hail,  King  of  the  Jews!  And 
they  spat  upon  him,  and  took  the  reed  and 
smote  him  on  the  head.  And  when  they 
had  mocked  him,  they  took  off  from  him 
the  robe,  and  put  on  his  garments,  and  led 
him  away  to  crucify  him."  This  is  the 
picture  of  sin  carried  to  its  logical  conclu- 
sion. There  is  nothing  too  sacred  for  Its 
villainy,  nothing  too  holy  to  escape  the 
cross. 

From  the  highest  heights  to  the  deepest 
depths  the  Master  came,  and  on  his  blood- 
stained vesture  is  written:  "King  of  kings 
and  Lord  of  lords."  He  "saw  the  travail 
of  his  soul  and  was  satisfied."  This  Is  holy 
ground;  tread  lightly.  Here  the  Son  of 
God    struggled    alone,    his    human    friends 

205 


JESUS    CHRIST    IN    HUMAN    EXPERIENCE 

fleeing  and  the  face  of  his  Father  veiled, 
but  eternal  life  was  born. 

O  righteous  Son  of  God,  we  would  hide 
our  faces  from  the  agony  thou  didst  endure 
for  us.  We  have  seen  the  cruelty,  the 
mockery,  the  base  indignity  which  devilish 
men  heaped  upon  thee.  We  have  walked 
by  thy  side  as  thou  didst  tread  the  Via 
Dolorosa,  And  when  thou  didst  fall  be- 
neath the  cross,  we  saw  another  made  to 
bear  its  ignominious  load.  So  thou  didst 
bear  our  transgressions. 

Yet  the  things  which  thy  blessed  hands 
have  touched  have  been  strangely  glorified 
— the  thorny  crown,  the  rough  garments, 
the  forced  service  of  the  Cyrenian.  The 
myrtle  blossoms  at  the  foot  of  the  cross, 
and  the  rose  and  the  ivy,  have  twined  about 
its  rough,  ignoble  beams,  but  thou  art  here, 
nearer  than  hands  and  feet,  nearer  than 
breathing.  Thy  holy  life  and  blessed 
example  compel  us;  lead  thou  us  on. 


206 


XVII 

BARABBAS:  VICARIOUS  SUFFERING 

(Matt.  27:  15-18.) 

TJTE  is  the  best  musical  composer  who  is 
"■•  the  most  skillful  in  working  up  his 
climaxes.  To  produce  the  effect  he  has 
in  mind  he  calls  upon  the  skill  of  his  orches- 
tra, the  vocal  and  histrionic  ability  of  his 
singers  and  the  chorus  arrangement.  The 
score  is  carefully  planned  and  the  phrasing 
critically  studied;  every  ascending  step  in 
the  "ladder"  is  calculated  with  splendid 
judgment.  The  power  and  timbre  of  each 
instrument  is  weighed  and  the  genius  of  the 
artists  challenged.  All  these  things,  supple- 
mented by  the  tricks  of  stagecraft,  enable 
the  composer  to  thrust  the  climax  of  his 
production  before  the  eyes  and  upon  the 
ears  of  his  audience. 

In  this  tragedy  the  movement  is  con- 
stantly towards  a  tremendous  finale,  and 
the  nearer  It  approaches  the  more  increased 
is  the  tempo,  the  more  rapid  is  the  action, 

207 


JESUS    CHRIST    IN    HUMAN    EXPERIENCE 

the  more  intense  the  atmosphere;  until, 
with  a  wild  plunge  and  furious  shriek,  the 
clangor  of  the  final  crescendo  surges  over 
the  beholder.  And  then  it  cuts  off  suddenly 
— as  suddenly  as  the  conductor's  baton  cuts 
off  the  thunder  of  his  musicians — and  there 
is  naught  but  a  groan,  a  woman's  sob,  a 
councilor's  quiet  request;  then — night 

In  the  midst  of  this  wild  demonstration 
the  Roman  governor  introduced  another 
face,  one  the  Jews  knew  very  well.  It 
belonged  to  a  man  who  was  guilty  of  sedi- 
tion, and,  more,  he  had  violated  the  funda- 
mental commandment  against  taking  life. 
He  was  one  of  those  peculiar  degenerates 
whose  race  is  by  no  means  extinct,  possess- 
ing the  shrewd  cunning  of  a  fox,  the  ability 
of  leadership,  together  with  a  disregard  for 
life  and  a  scorn  for  government  which  made 
him  at  once  dangerous  to  both  state  and 
municipality.  He  was  reactionary  and 
anarchistic  and  murderous.  With  him  at 
large,  society  was  in  danger,  and  this  they 
knew;  hence,  Barabbas  had  been  appre- 
hended and  imprisoned.  Base  passions  and 
primal  Instincts  had  run  riot  through  his 
body,  brutalizing  his  Intellect  and  strangling 
his   affections.      His   face   was   coarse   and 

208 


BAR  ABB  AS:    VICARIOUS    SUFFERING 

sensual;  his  heart  hard  and  devilish;  a  cold, 
crafty  glint  in  his  eye  and  a  cynical  sneer 
on  his  lips.  It  would  have  been  difficult 
to  have  found  a  more  dangerous  degenerate 
than  he. 

Over  against  him  the  procurator  set 
Jesus,  the  embodiment  of  purity,  of  holy 
purpose,  of  lofty  vision.  The  clear-cut 
features  of  the  Nazarene — his  eyes,  his 
nose,  his  chin — showed  at  once  that  he  was 
both  poet  and  prophet.  ^'Whom  will  ye," 
questioned  the  Roman,  "that  I  release  unto 
you?  Barabbas,  or  Jesus  who  is  called 
Christ?"  Could  there  be  any  choice?  Cer- 
tainly not,  so  he  thought.  One  look  at  that 
brutalized  face,  and  they  would  shrink  back 
at  the  suggestion  of  releasing  such  as  he 
among  the  innocent  and  unprotected;  not 
the  traitor  and  murderer,  surely!  But  the 
answer  came  quickly,  so  hoarse  and  positive 
that  it  fairly  made  the  walls  tremble: 
"Barabbas!"  Jesus  he  delivered  up;  Barab- 
bas he  released. 

Each  of  the  Gospel  writers  draws  the 
picture  in  a  very  graphic  sentence — the 
innocent  suffering  in  the  place  of  the  guilty. 
And  this  is  where  Christ  most  vitally 
touches  human  experience. 

14  209 


JESUS    CHRIST    IN    HUMAN    EXPERIENCE 


The  Bible  is  by  no  means  the  only  place 
where  we  are  brought  face  to  face  with  the 
ugly  fact  of  sin  and  guilt.  As  the  historian 
writes  down  the  record  of  events,  he  may 
not,  and  usually  does  not,  inform  the  reader 
that  much  of  the  narrative  is  the  record  of 
the  effects  of  sin.  But  he  who  reads 
philosophically  is  sure  to  see  back  of  the 
film  of  words  the  cause,  and  he  is  cognizant 
also  of  a  spirit  more  malignant  and  a  dozen 
times  more  diabolical  than  the  Mephisto- 
pheles  of  Goethe's  "Faust."  Practically 
without  exception  the  wars  of  the  world 
have  been  caused  by  the  unholy  desire  of 
oppression,  to  gain  territory,  to  suppress 
liberty.  Many  the  fertile  valley  overrun 
by  the  soldiery  of  a  stronger  people;  many 
the  home  destroyed  by  the  brutal  troops 
of  an  alien  power  who  had  no  right  there 
save  as  might  makes  right;  many  the  wide 
plain  ravaged  and  left  smoking  and  deso- 
late by  the  warriors  of  a  hostile  nation. 
Assyria  was  not  the  first  to  sweep  out  of 
her  strongholds  and  assail  a  weaker  people, 
nor  was  Israel  the  last  to  have  her  capital 
city  besieged  and  burned. 

210 


BAR  ABB  AS:   VICARIOUS   SUFFERING 

The  history  of  the  Middle  Ages  is  a 
remarkable  story  of  lust,  intrigue  and 
bloodshed.  One  can  not  read  the  chron- 
icler's narrative  of  those  awful  days  without 
feeling  something  of  their  blight.  He  can 
not  breathe  well  until  he  comes  out  into 
the  Renaissance  where  men  begin  once  more 
to  assert  their  inherent  right  of  freedom  of 
thought.  And,  what  was  worst  of  all,  the 
horrid  phantasm  was  induced  and  fed  by 
the  Church,  whose  chosen  instruments  were 
the  stake,  the  rack  and  the  screw.  Red  was, 
and  continues  to  be,  its  color. 

But  there  is  another  side  that  tells  the 
story  more  powerfully  than  the  page  of 
history;  it  is  the  individual  conscience.  Con- 
science is  a  wonderful  thing;  it  Is  the  finger 
of  God  within.  The  Psalmist  states  it 
thus  graphically: 

"Whither  shall  I  go  from  thy  Spirit? 
Or  whither  shall  I  flee  from  thy  presence? 
If  I  ascend  into  heaven,  thou  art  there : 
If  I  make  my  bed  in  Sheol,  behold,  thou  art  there. 
If  I  take  the  wings  of  the  morning, 
And  dwell  in  the  uttermost  parts  of  the  sea; 
Even  there  shall  thy  hand  lead  me, 
And  thy  right  hand  shall  hold  me." 

Conscience  and  guilt  can  not  live  to- 
gether; If  one  persists,  the  other  dies,  and 

211 


JESUS    CHRIST    IN    HUMAN    EXPERIENCE 

guilt  always  follows  transgression.  Adam 
and  Eve  hid  themselves;  Cain  lied;  Peter 
wept;  Judas  hanged  himself.  No  matter 
whether  the  individual  be  Jew  or  Gentile, 
Oriental  or  Occidental,  male  or  female, 
Laplander  or  Samoan,  guilt  is  his  common 
property.  Hence  the  object  of  all  religious 
worship,  from  the  crudest  shrine  of  the 
Congoese  to  the  most  magnificent  cathedral 
altar  of  enlightened  man,  is  to  rid  the  con- 
science of  the  smart  of  guilt.  The  sin  of 
Adam  is  perfectly  psychological  from  begin- 
ning to  end,  and  what  transpired  in  Adam's 
case  is  exactly  what  happens  in  the  case  of 
every  individual,  and  the  result  is  invariable 
— guilt  and  expulsion.  Sin  is  a  process,  and 
the  conclusion  is  persistently  and  unchang- 
ingly death. 

It  is  not  strange,  therefore,  that  the 
very  first  glimmerings  of  divine  revelation 
should  be  concerned  with  the  psychology 
of  this  great  trouble  in  the  human  family. 
It  makes  little  difference  whether  the  Gen- 
esis narrative  Is  parable,  the  result  of 
composite  authorship  or  genuine  history; 
the  critical  problem  does  not  change  the 
psychology  of  the  story.  Whoever  wrote 
It  knew  the  working  of  the  human  mind, 

212 


BARABBAS:   VICARIOUS   SUFFERING 

and  this  is  what  we  are  interested  in  just 
here.  "How  am  I  to  be  rid  of  guilt?"  is 
what  concerns  John  Smith,  U.  S.  A.,  the 
same  as  the  Adam  of  Genesis  3.  And  this 
is  the  problem  to  which  the  Bible  addresses 
itself. 

Nor  has  it  been  a  Biblical  problem 
alone.  There  were  two  methods  of  ap- 
proaching it  before  the  coming  of  Christ. 
The  first  was  by  the  Jewish  law,  which  had 
for  its  intent  the  perfection  of  men  on  the 
plane  of  justice.  If  a  man  did  right  under 
all  circumstances  and  was  infallible  in  his 
judgment,  then  there  was  no  quarrel  be- 
tween him  and  God;  there  was  no  sting  of 
sin,  no  smart  of  conscience.  The  Jews 
worked  on  this  problem  for  fifteen  hundred 
years  under  the  most  favorable  circum- 
stances. In  territory  they  were  separated 
from  their  neighbors  by  a  western  sea,  by 
southern  and  eastern  desert,  and  by  north- 
ern mountains.  They  were  possessed  of  a 
divinely  given  law  and,  at  various  periods 
in  their  history,  had  brilliant  prophetic 
leadership.  Of  course  they  were  ignorant 
of  the  intent  of  their  national  life,  laws 
and  institutions,  but  that  does  not  change 
the   fact      If  perfection   could  have  been 

213 


JESUS    CHRIST    IN    HUMAN    EXPERIENCE 

developed  under  such  conditions,  they  ought 
to  have  made  some  progress  during  that 
millennium  and  a  half.  But  Paul,  the  most 
scholarly  of  the  Christian  Jews,  argues  that 
the  law  was  "a  yoke  which  neither  our 
fathers  nor  we  were  able  to  bear." 

In  our  own  generation,  when  men  are 
asking  if  they  can  not  be  saved  by  their  own 
goodness,  let  them  remember  that  Israel 
had  fifteen  hundred  years  of  experience  In 
that  very  thing,  but  that  sin  was  too  great 
a  handicap  to  be  overcome.  During  these 
years  they  passed  through  periods  of  bril- 
liant prosperity  as  well  as  appalling  national 
disaster,  and  the  land  was  swept  clean  of 
its  inhabitants.  But  neither  prosperity  nor 
calamity,  nor  yet  the  combination,  succeeded 
in  calling  forth  that  perfection  which  was 
necessary  above  all  else  to  meet  God  on 
the  standard  of  merit. 

But  there  remains  the  second  side. 
While  Israel  was  at  work  on  his  problem, 
the  Greek  was  at  work  on  his,  and  I  use 
the  Greek  as  typical  of  the  Gentile  world. 
It  was  not  his  task  to  make  conscience  per- 
fect by  law,  but  rather  by  philosophy  and 
culture.  If  the  Jew  had  been  given  a 
territory  particularly  adapted  to  the  work- 

214 


BAR  ABB  AS:   VICARIOUS    SUFFERING 

ing  out  of  his  problem,  so  had  the  Greek. 
The  blue  waters  of  the  ^Egean  and  Ionian 
Seas  caressed  the  shores  of  that  historic 
peninsula,  contributing  much  to  its  salubri- 
ous climate,  which  was  neither  the  burning 
heat  of  the  tropics  nor  the  bitter  cold  of 
the  Arctic,  but  rather  the  golden  mean. 
Hill  and  valley  and  plain  mingled  in  splen- 
did profusion.  Greece,  too,  was  separated 
from  her  neighbors,  yet  in  the  great  trade 
routes  of  the  world.  In  her  ideal  location 
she  gave  herself  up  to  the  solution  of  her 
problem,  not  knowing  the  importance  of  it, 
or  that  she  was  making  a  demonstration 
that  must  stand  as  typical  throughout  all 
time.  Her  Phidias  in  sculpture  and  her 
Pericles  in  architecture  are  at  once  the 
despair  and  inspiration  of  the  modern 
artistic  world.  The  Homerian  "Iliad"  is 
the  pattern  epic  of  them  all,  and  the  Greek 
drama  with  its  carefully  wrought  strophe 
and  measured  chorus  is  an  artistic  produc- 
tion peculiar  to  itself;  while  in  philosophy 
Socrates  and  Plato  still  wear  the  crown 
of  honor. 

Yet  it  was  often  the  temples  whose 
lines  were  the  most  harmonious  and  whose 
symmetry  was  the  most  perfect  which  shel- 

215 


JESUS    CHRIST    IN    HUMAN    EXPERIENCE 

tered  the  most  hideous  and  degrading  forms 
of  worship.  The  wisest  philosopher  might 
be  at  the  same  time  the  most  reprobate. 
Strangely  enough,  culture  and  corruption 
increased  in  approximately  the  same  ratio, 
until  the  latter  undermined  the  former,  and 
the  whole  dazzling  fabric  crashed  to  ruin 
irreparable. 

These  two  great  nations  carried  on  this 
work  side  by  side;  the  Jew  in  his  bigoted 
narrowness  spitting  at  the  Greek,  and  the 
Greek  in  his  supposedly  superior  wisdom 
making  faces  at  his  Jewish  brother,  neither 
guessing  that  they  were  working  on  two 
sides  of  the  same  problem.  There  Is, 
therefore,  a  splendid  significance  about  the 
apostolic  statement:  "In  the  fulness  of  time 
God  sent  his  Son."  Had  he  come  a  thou- 
sand years  earlier,  men  would  have  been 
justified  In  turning  toward  either  one  of 
these  great  fields  just  discussed.  But  when 
at  last  the  Christ  did  come,  Peter's  question 
was  In  point:  "Lord,  to  whom  can  we  go? 
thou  hast  the  words  of  eternal  life."  Men 
had  already  demonstrated  under  the  most 
favorable  conditions  that  law  or  culture, 
or  both,  were  Impossible  as  means  of  sal- 
vation.     They   could   not   cleanse   the    con- 

216 


BARABBAS:   VICARIOUS    SUFFERING 

science  of  guilt.  It  remained  now  for  the 
"grace  of  God  to  be  shed  abroad  in  our 
hearts  through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord,"  that 
men  might  be  new  creatures  walking  in  the 
fullness  of  life. 

II 

This  Introduces  the  doctrine  of  vicarious 
suffering,  which,  with  some,  is  unpopular. 
But  he  who  rejects  it  is  referred  to  the 
other  two  just  discussed.  The  doctrine  is 
common  to  practically  all  races,  ancient  and 
modern.  According  to  the  Greek  myth, 
King  Minos  laid  a  yearly  tribute  of  seven 
youths  and  seven  virgins  upon  the  Athe- 
nians. These  were  to  feed  the  Minotaur,  a 
bull-headed,  man-bodied  monster  of  Crete. 
Thus,  according  to  the  myth,  fourteen  young 
people  died  every  year  to  save  Athens. 
This  represents  the  doctrine  of  substitution. 
Under  the  Jewish  regime,  animals  suffered, 
but  the  blood  of  bulls  and  goats  could  not 
take  away  sin.  The  human  conscience 
somehow  conceived  the  idea  that  by  sacri- 
ficing an  innocent  human  victim  guilt  would 
thereby  be  removed.  Hence  the  Egyptians 
gave  a  virgin  to  the  Nile;  Moab  and  India 
gave   their  babies,   the   one   to   the   heated 

217 


JESUS    CHRIST    IN    HUMAN    EXPERIENCE 

image  of  Moloch  and  the  other  to  the 
Ganges;  and  the  Incas  of  ancient  Peru 
gave  a  young  man,  prepared  by  certain 
ceremonies,  to  the  sun. 

Modern  centuries  have  modified  the 
doctrine  somewhat,  yet  it  is  still  with  us. 
The  mother  suffers  for  her  child;  the  father 
substitutes  his  body  in  labor  for  the  family. 
Our  nation  exists  because  of  the  substitu- 
tionary offerings  of  1776  and  1861.  The 
Magna  Charta  and  the  Declaration  of 
Independence  are  two  great  monuments 
erected,  not  only  to  human  progress,  but 
to  the  splendid  memory  of  the  men  who 
suffered,  not  only  for  themselves,  but  for 
all  who  came  after  them. 

The  greatest  emblem,  however,  of  vica- 
rious suffering  is  the  cross  of  Jesus  Christ. 
Somehow,  in  a  manner  in  which  we  may 
never  be  able  to  explain,  the  cross  is  con- 
nected with  our  salvation.  "Behold,"  said 
John  the  Baptist  at  the  river  of  Jordan, 
"the  Lamb  of  God  that  taketh  away  the 
sin  of  the  world."  "Christ  died  for  our 
sins,"  said  Paul;  and  the  statement  of 
Peter  is:  "Who  his  own  self  bare  our  sins 
in  his  body  upon  the  tree,  that  we,  having 
died  unto  sins,  might  live  unto  righteous- 

218 


BARABBAS:   VICARIOUS   SUFFERING 

ness;  by  whose  stripes  ye  were  healed."  This 
is  possibly  the  most  sublime  tenet  of  the 
Christian  faith.  Its  height  is  quite  beyond 
the  flight  of  mortal  spirit.  God  so  loved 
that  he  gave;  Jesus  so  loved  that  he  died 
that  all  might  have  life  abundantly  through 
his  name. 

Sin  and  guilt  are  much  deeper  than  law 
and  culture.  The  latter  are  in  the  major 
external;  the  former  can  be  reached  only 
by  divine  ministration.  Hence  Jesus  Christ, 
acting  on  his  own  initiative,  made  the  cross 
not  only  the  world's  altar  of  expiation,  but 
also  the  doorway  into  everlasting  life.  It 
was  of  his  own  volition;  he  was  not  com- 
pelled, save  as  love  is  compelling.  It  should 
be  sufficient  that  he  is  "the  way";  and  men 
need  not  miss  the  relief  of  conscience  and 
the  blessing  of  everlasting  life  because  they 
can  not  understand  to  its  fullness  the  doc- 
trine of  vicarious  suffering.  The  patient 
may  know  nothing  of  the  technique  of 
surgery;  it  is  sufficient  for  him  that  he 
recovers  his  health.  Jesus  Christ  is  the 
great  Physician,  and  by  what  instrumen- 
tality he  makes  us  whole  again  need  not 
give  us  undue  concern;  through  him  we 
have  everlasting  life. 

219 


JESUS    CHRIST    IN    HUMAN    EXPERIENCE 

III 

Jesus  announced,  "I  am  come  to  preach 
liberty  to  the  captives,"  and  his  is  the 
greatest  message  men  ever  heard.  Forget 
for  a  moment,  if  you  can,  your  hope  of 
everlasting  life,  and  ten  thousand  torment- 
ing demons  rise  out  of  the  abyss.  There 
is  nothing  in  the  whole  round  of  nature,  of 
law  or  philosophy,  that  is  able  to  quiet  the 
fears  of  the  soul.  It  is  small  wonder  that 
before  the  coming  of  Christ  men  were 
driven  to  the  awful  extremity  of  sacrificing 
their  own  flesh  and  blood  in  the  hope  of 
obtaining  relief  of  conscience.  But  when 
Christ  enters,  light  floods  the  soul  and 
confidence  takes  up  her  abode  within.  Hon- 
est men  dare  anything  for  him,  and,  rather 
than  surrender  their  faith,  will  go  to  the 
stake. 

The  keyword  of  Christ's  influence  upon 
the  heart  is  "peace."  His  "Fear  not"  has 
echoed  across  the  centuries,  and  his  "Come 
unto  me"  is  the  sweetest  invitation  the 
weary  sons  of  men  have  ever  heard. 

O  thou  blessed  Saviour  of  mankind,  we 
adore  thee  because  thou  didst  lift  the  bur- 
den of  guilt  from  our  weary  shoulders  and 


BARABBAS:   VICARIOUS   SUFFERING 

didst  bear  it  thyself.  It  hath  been  rolled 
away,  we  know  not  where,  but  our  souls 
rejoice  that  it  hath  departed  and  that  liberty 
hath  come  in  its  stead.  The  crimson  stains 
of  sin  have  somehow,  in  the  alchemy  of 
divine  redemptionj  faded  into  the  snowy 
whiteness  of  wool,  and  in  thee  we  stand 
clean  again.  It  is  not  in  our  own  merit, 
nor  in  the  power  of  human  wisdom,  nor 
yet  in  any  attained  perfection,  but  in  the 
foolishness  of  the  cross,  that  we  are  made 
perfect.  Thou  didst  die  for  us.  Lord  and 
Master,  and  we  would  follow  thee  through 
the  door  which  thou  didst  open  for  all 
mankind. 


221 


XVIII 
JOSEPH:  THE  UNEXPECTED  MAN 

(Mark  15:42-46;  Luke  23:50-53.) 

F^ID  you  ever  try  to  imagine  the  silence 
of  a  battlefield  the  first  night  after 
the  troops  had  been  withdrawn?  All  around 
are  the  grewsome  reminders  of  the  conflict 
— the  broken  artillery,  the  splintered  debris, 
the  fragments  of  shell,  the  battered  messen- 
gers of  death,  the  scattered  arms,  the  bodies 
of  the  slain — all  baptized  with  the  pale 
light  of  the  moon,  ghastly  and  melancholy. 
It  is  the  silence  of  the  tomb ;  it  is  the  bivouac 
of  the  dead. 

As  one  reads  this  narrative  of  the  trial 
and  execution  of  our  Lord,  coming  at 
length  to  this  paragraph,  he  has  something 
of  the  awe  of  spirit  I  imagine  one  might 
have  felt  had  he  stood  on  the  field  of 
Gettysburgh  the  night  following  the  last  day 
of  that  terrible  conflict,  or  on  the  field  of 
Waterloo  when  the  soft  moon  shone  on  the 
thousand  silent  forms  that  had  fallen  ere 
222 


JOSEPH:   THE   UNEXPECTED   MAN 

the  spell  of  Napoleon's  genius  was  broken 
by  England's  Iron  Duke. 

This  narrative  states  that  the  Passover 
Sabbath  was  at  hand.  The  infuriated  mob 
had  spent  its  passion  and,  like  swine,  had 
returned  to  its  feeding-place;  the  green 
poison,  seething  in  the  hearts  of  the  priests, 
was  setthng  back  to  normal;  but,  even  so, 
their  hatred  had  by  no  means  burned  itself 
out.  The  malefactor  was  dead,  the  guard 
at  the  cross  withdrawn.  Even  Jesus'  ac- 
quaintances and  the  women  who  had  fol- 
lowed him  from  Galilee  "stood  afar  off." 
The  silence  is  the  more  intense  because  of 
the  clangor  which  went  before. 

One  is  hardly  prepared  for  the  man 
who  emerges  from  this  tumult.  It  was  not 
Peter,  though  he  may  have  wept  his  sad 
bosom  empty  by  this  time;  neither  was  it 
John,  though  he  may  have  taken  Mary  to 
his  own  home  hours  before;  neither  was  it 
any  of  the  twelve  who  might  be  expected 
to  see  that  Christ's  body  was  decently 
interred.  It  might  have  been  thrown  in  the 
Vale  of  Hinnom,  so  far  as  they  were  con- 
cerned. It  remained  for  an  unknown  man 
to  come  forward  and  give  the  dead  Christ 
a  resting-place  in  his  own  new  tomb.      By 

223 


JESUS    CHRIST    IN    HUMAN    EXPERIENCE 

a  strange  coincidence  the  earthly  life  of 
Jesus  opens  with  a  Joseph  watching  by  the 
manger,  and  it  was  the  hands  of  another 
Joseph  that  wrapped  the  clean  linen  about 
his  pierced  body  and  performed  the  last 
tokens  of  respect  and  love. 

The  picture  is  this:  Three  crosses  on  a 
hill  near  to  Jerusalem.  The  red  rays  of 
the  evening  sun  fell  upon  the  bit  of  rugged 
landscape  where  the  Son  of  God  hung 
dead.  Two  members  of  the  Jewish  council 
— Joseph  and  Nicodemus — had  watched 
that  day's  events  with  more  than  ordinary 
interest,  interest  which  deepened  into  con- 
viction. When  the  divine  Sufferer  bowed 
his  head,  Joseph  went  boldly  to  Pilate  and 
asked  for  the  body.  Hastily,  though  ten- 
derly, they  conveyed  it  to  the  new  tomb,  and 
prepared  it  for  burial. 


Looking  at  the  events  with  which  each 
of  the  Gospel  writers  closes  his  narrative, 
a  man  might  conclude  that  society  was 
wholly  corrupt.  But  an  unknown  and  an 
unexpected  man  came  forward  at  this  crisis, 
revealing  to  us  a  splendid  soul.  There  are 
not  a  few  in  our  age  who  look  upon  society 

224 


JOSEPH:   THE   UNEXPECTED   MAN 

as  decadent,  if  not  In  the  last  stages  of  cor- 
ruption. These  few  are  possessed  of  the 
conceit  that  they  are  all  that  stand  between 
the  world  and  destruction.  Even  so  good  a 
man  as  Elijah  gave  utterance  to  a  declara- 
tion which  is  wholly  unlike  the  heroic 
spirit  that  burned  in  his  breast  normally: 
"I  have  been  very  jealous  for  Jehovah,  the 
God  of  hosts;  for  the  children  of  Israel 
have  forsaken  thy  covenant,  thrown  down 
thine  altars,  and  slain  thy  prophets  with 
the  sword:  and  I,  even  I  only,  am  left;  and 
they  seek  my  life,  to  take  it  away!*  It  Is 
hardly  like  Elijah  to  think  that  he  was  the 
only  one  that  was  true  to  the  faith  of  his 
fathers.  Not  a  few  Christians  have  fallen 
Into  the  same  morbid  spirit  of  self-congrat- 
ulation. They  insist  that  men  be  "ortho- 
dox" by  the  rule  of  one,  and  they  the  one, 
and  when  the  rule  Is  disregarded,  the  col- 
lapse of  faith  Is  Inevitable !  It  Is  not  a 
healthful  attitude  of  the  mind  that  con- 
ceives Itself  to  be  the  peg  that  keeps  all 
humanity  from  sliding  Into  Hades.  God 
has  other  hands  than  ours  pulling  at  the 
levers  of  the  universe,  and  he  has  other 
backs  that  bear  burdens  for  him,  men  and 
women  who  are  as  diligent  and  as  faithful 

15  225 


JESUS    CHRIST    IN    HUMAN    EXPERIENCE 

in  their  places  as  are  we,  and  possibly  with 
less  ostentation.  There  was  the  ''good  man 
of  the  house' '  where  Jesus  and  the  twelve 
had  kept  the  Passover  but  a  few  hours 
before,  and  here  are  two  more  men,  honor- 
able, influential,  high-principled,  who  come 
forward  and  take  charge  after  the  "ortho- 
dox" had  forsaken  and  fled. 

Again,  we  are  likely  to  estimate  the 
effect  of  the  gospel  upon  our  community 
by  its  visible  results;  say,  the  number  of  con- 
verts, church-members.  But  that  may 
mean  nothing,  for,  if  the  work  of  Jesus 
on  the  eve  of  his  crucifixion  had  been  thus 
estimated,  it  would  have  been  included  in 
twelve  men  and  a  handful  of  women,  and 
a  few  hours  later  even  the  twelve  forsook 
him.  But  the  influence  of  Jesus  did  not 
stop  with  these  twelve  erratic  souls.  As 
quietly  as  the  sun's  rays  it  had  slipped  into 
other  hearts,  hearts  less  impulsive  than 
Peter's,  and  possibly  less  demonstrative 
than  John's.  There  were  at  least  two  who 
had  come  under  the  influence  of  Christ's 
magnetic  presence.  These  had  had  the 
courage  to  stand  for  him  in  the  Sanhedrin, 
and  as  the  opposition  grew  more  flagrant 
in  its  disregard  for  right  and  justice,  and 

226 


JOSEPH:   THE   UNEXPECTED   MAN 

as  the  physical  suffering  of  the  Christ  grew 
more  acute,  their  faith  in  him  increased 
accordingly,  and  finally  mounted  to  the 
point  where  they  stepped  out  in  calm  dignity 
and  took  charge.  In  the  most  unexpected 
place  the  teaching  of  Jesus  had  blossomed 
into  fragrance  and  beauty — in  the  Sanhe- 
drin. 

Preaching  Jesus  is  the  most  fascinating 
business  in  the  world.  Every  imaginable 
condition  is  before  the  gospel  herald — 
beaten  ground,  shallowness,  thorns,  and 
good  and  honest  hearts.  In  hope  he  scat- 
ters the  seed,  and  with  sorrow  notes  the 
coming  of  the  fowls,  the  choking  thorns 
and  the  withering  plant  that  tried  to  grow 
out  of  the  shallow  earth.  There  is  joy 
over  the  productivity  of  the  good  and 
honest  heart — a  hundred-fold.  He  is  not 
responsible  how  they  hear,  but  what  they 
hear;  nor  for  the  soil,  but  for  the  seed. 
*'In  the  morning  sow  thy  seed,  and  In  the 
evening  withhold  not  thine  hand." 

II 

John  says  that  Joseph  was  a  secret 
disciple  for  fear  of  the  Jews.  It  Is  difficult 
to  determine  how  much  stress  we  may  place 

227 


JESUS    CHRIST    IN    HUMAN    EXPERIENCE 

on  *'dlsclple/'  though  we  may  suppose  it 
was  considerably  more  than  a  passing  inter- 
est in  Jesus  and  his  teaching.  Men  do  the 
most  of  their  "plunging"  before  they  are 
thirty-five  years  of  age.  Wealth,  legislation 
and  religion  are  the  most  conservative 
trinity  in  human  experience;  distressingly  so 
at  times !  Joseph  was  Influenced  by  each 
member  of  it.  Not  many  people  in  middle 
life  are  changing  their  church  relationships, 
especially  those  of  wealth  and  position; 
Joseph  was  no  exception.  To  him  Jesus 
was  a  teacher  of  attractive  power,  a  hater 
of  shams,  a  rebuker  of  hypocrisy,  a  lover 
of  truth,  a  helper  of  the  needy.  Joseph 
was  a  man  of  family,  of  business,  and  a 
member  of  the  Jewish  council.  There  had 
been  no  particular  reason,  up  to  this  time, 
why  he  should  Invite  the  hostility  of  his 
compatriots,  and  this  certainly  Implied  no 
disrespect  for  Jesus.  Joseph  was  on  the 
other  side  of  the  crucifixion  and  the  resur- 
rection, yet  there  Is  no  reason  to  conclude 
that  he  had  stultified  his  conscience,  for 
quite  the  reverse  seems  to  be  true.  No 
man  of  his  type  enjoys  trouble,  and  his 
conservative  nature  kept  him  out  of  It.  It 
may  be  better  to  be  a  "secret"  disciple  and 


JOSEPH:  THE   UNEXPECTED   MAN 

do  as  he  did  than  to  be  an  "open"  disciple 
and  do  as  the  twelve  did;  in  fact,  the  twelve 
do  not  gain  very  much  in  comparison  with 
Joseph  and  Nicodemus  up  to  this  time. 

Mythology  has  it  that  Minerva  sprang 
fully  grown  and  fully  armed  from  the  brain 
of  Zeus,  but  the  Christ  consciousness  is  not 
formed  thus  quickly  in  a  man's  mind.  To 
the  Galatians  Paul  wrote:  "I  am  again  in 
travail  until  Christ  be  formed  in  youJ^  It  is 
a  spiritual  process,  and  with  some  a  long 
and  difficult  one,  yet  not  impossible.  It 
takes  time  to  grasp  the  profound  signifi- 
cance of  the  Saviourhood  of  our  Lord;  it 
is  one  thing  to  know  him  historically;  it  is 
quite  something  else  to  be  the  temple  of 
the  Holy  Spirit. 

Up  to  this  time  there  was  no  reason 
for  haste,  and  Joseph  moved  slowly.  He 
framed  his  premises  carefully  and  drew  his 
conclusions  deliberately,  yet  there  is  no 
doubt  that  Christ  was  forming  within.  But 
these  closing  hours  were  forcing  conclu- 
sions on  questions  long  held  open.  The 
expiring  Christ  demanded  explanations,  and 
there  could  be  but  one.  Joseph's  horizon 
was  receding,  his  foundations  shifting,  his 
ancient  faith  near  a  collapse.     In  common 

229 


y 


JESUS    CHRIST    IN    HUMAN    EXPERIENCE 

with  the  aged  Zacharias  and  a  few  others 
of  that  interesting  third  of  a  century,  he  sat 
in  the  pale  glow  of  the  Christian  dawn 
"looking  for  the  kingdom.'^  But  he  was 
at  a  loss  to  know  how  this  dying  Galilean 
was  to  fit  into  the  traditional  Jewish  scheme. 
He  knew  the  Messianic  pattern;  he  was 
sure  there  could  be  no  mistake,  and  yet 
here  was  Jesus  so  much  grander  and  more 
sublime  than  the  historic  conception,  even 
though  dying  on  the  cross.  Perhaps,  after 
all,  the  Jewish  fathers  had  made  the 
Messiah  fit  their  longings  rather  than 
grasping  the  full  force  of  the  divine  con- 
ception. They  clung  to  the  shell  of  proph- 
ecy, but  the  Spirit  broke  through  and 
escaped.  So  Joseph  made  no  effort  to 
harmonize  the  two  views;  he  took  Jesus 
as  he  was. 

Men  ought  not  to  feel  compelled  to 
harmonize  every  apparent  contradiction  be- 
tween faith  and  science,  or  within  faith 
itself.  Nor  should  these  difficulties  stand 
between  us  and  Jesus  Christ.  I  can  not 
tell  how  light  and  heat  pass  through  the 
ninety-one  million  miles  of  space  between 
me  and  the  sun,  but  that  should  not  hinder 
me  from  enjoying  the  warmth  and  beauty 

230 


JOSEPH:  THE  UNEXPECTED   MAN 

of  the  sunlight.  Nor  does  the  fact  that 
I  can  not  explain  the  phenomenon  of  hear- 
ing prevent  me  from  enjoying  harmony 
of  sound  and  social  intercourse  with  my 
friends.  Now,  when  we  step  into  the 
domain  of  revelation  it  is  well  to  remember 
that  this  is  the  Lord's  doing;  we  are  touch- 
ing the  Divine  Mind,  the  Infinite  Intelli- 
gence; hence  there  are  many  things  past 
human  understanding.  But  because  we  can 
not  understand  and  explain  the  mysteries 
of  redemption  Is  no  reason  why  we  can  not 
enjoy  the  blessing  of  It  and  its  full-orbed 
glory. 

Ill 

Joseph  answered  the  call.  Certainly 
there  Is  no  shrinking  back  here.  His  fine 
soul  blazed  out  and  he  stood  positively  for 
the  Lord.  It  takes  courage  to  stand  with 
the  minority,  especially  when  the  majority 
is  composed  of  such  powerful  and  blood- 
thirsty villains  as  these  murderers  of  Christ. 
But  note  the  man:  he  went  boldly  to  Pilate, 
he  took  the  body  of  Jesus  and  laid  it  in  his 
own  sepulchre.  The  Sanhedrin  knew  it  was 
Joseph's  sepulchre,  for  they  placed  a  guard 
to  watch.     Against  that  dark  background 

231 


JESUS    CHRIST    IN    HUMAN    EXPERIENCE 

the  splendid  manhood  of  Joseph  stands  out 
in  wonderful  relief. 

The  persecution  of  the  innocent  always 
has  the  opposite  effect  from  that  intended. 
The  Church  made  rapid  growth  in  the 
first  centuries  although  base  men  persecuted 
it,  but,  instead  of  exterminating  It,  they 
called  multitudes  to  Its  membership.  The 
heart  of  man  is  natively  set  against  unfair- 
ness. Instead  of  heaping  Ignominy  upon 
Jesus,  even  the  very  Instrument  of  torture 
has  become  the  most  honored  symbol  among 
men. 

Self-protection  may  be  among  the  first 
laws  of  nature;  but  when  a  great  principle 
is  at  stake,  when  the  fundamentals  are 
assailed,  men  very  quickly  forget  the  per- 
sonal side.  Self  and  selfish  interests,  even 
home  and  its  tender  associations,  drop  out 
of  sight.  It  is  a  characteristic  of  manhood; 
perhaps  It  may  be  called  a  moral  virtue. 
In  any  event,  it  is  one  of  the  inherent  marks 
which  man  bears  In  common  with  his  God; 
it  Is  one  of  the  lines  in  the  Father's  face 
which  appears  in  the  spiritual  visage  of  the 
twice-born  child.  If  a  man  can  stand  un- 
moved in  the  presence  of  a  great  wrong, 
there  is  something  radically  at  fault  with 

232 


JOSEPH;   THE   UNEXPECTED   MAN 

his  eyes;  either  he  has  not  yet  seen  God, 
or  else  he  is  incapable  of  moral  discrimina- 
tion. To  get  the  correct  view,  a  man  must 
look  at  everything — everything — through 
God.  If  he  reverses  it,  his  view  will  be 
colored  and  crooked,  dark  and  diminished. 
Joseph  was  ^'looking  for  the  kingdom,"  for 
Christ  had  touched  his  experience.  In 
this  moment  of  grave  stress  the  councilor 
stepped  out  unexpectedly,  revealing  the 
strength  of  a  Christ-filled  soul. 

Blessed  Christ,  human  eyes  have  looked 
at  the  death  of  the  Son  of  God  upon 
the  cross  when  he  hung  helpless  and  for- 
saken beneath  the  crimson  rays  of  a  dying 
day.  Thou  didst  enter  the  house  of  the 
strong  man,  bind  him  and  set  the  captives 
free.  We  believe  thou  didst  fight  the  battle 
and  win  the  victory — for  us. 

We  thank  thee  for  the  two  good  men 
who  ministered  unto  thee  in  death  when 
those  whom  thou  didst  love  were  panic- 
stricken;  we  thank  thee  for  the  "unknown" 
men  who  take  up  the  work  from  which  we 
in  our  cowardice  often  flee.  As  the  hush 
of  death  surrounds  that  new  tomb,  may  we 
watch  with  the  weeping  women,  knowing 
there  shall  be  a  glorious  dawn. 

233 


XIX 

MARY:  THE  SLANDERED  MAGDALENE 

(John  20:  I,  2,  11-18.) 

TOSEPH  and  Mary  stand  at  the  begin- 
^  ning  of  the  earthly  life  of  Jesus,  and 
another  Joseph  and  Mary  stand  at  its 
close.  It  was  Mary  of  Nazareth  who 
first  looked  into  the  eyes  of  the  infant 
Christ;  it  was  Mary  of  Magdala  who  first 
looked  into  the  eyes  of  the  risen  Lord.  In 
the  days  of  his  flesh  this  splendid  woman 
had  become  his  faithful  and  devoted  fol- 
lower. Out  of  her  substance  (and  she 
seems  to  have  been  a  wealthy  woman)  she 
had  ministered  to  him  and  his  work.  She 
was  present  at  his  death  and  burial.  On 
the  morning  of  the  first  day  of  the  week, 
she  was  back  to  his  tomb  "while  it  was  yet 
dark."  Yet,  for  all  her  splendid  devotion 
to  the  Lord,  the  Christian  world  has  most 
basely  slandered  her;  they  have  made  her 
one  and  the  same  with  the  sinful  woman 
who  anointed  the  feet  of  Jesus  in  the  house 

234 


^  MARY:  THE  SLANDERED  MAGDALENE  " 

of  Simon  the  Pharisee,  and  "Magdalene" 
has  become  a  synonym  of  "harlot.'*  Chiv- 
alry, if  nothing  else,  demands  that  Christian 
manhood  come  to  her  defense  and  rescue 
her  good  name  from  the  blight  of  immo- 
rality. Biblical  literature  has  no  character 
more  noble,  or  more  worthy  to  stand  by  the 
side  of  Hannah,  Elisabeth,  or  any  of  the 
great  women  of  Israel,  or  the  Christian 
Church. 

There  is  real  pathos  in  the  aimless 
wanderings  of  those  friends  of  Jesus.  "I 
will  smite  the  shepherd  and  scatter  the 
sheep;"  and  there  was  never  a  more  pur- 
poseless group  than  they  that  Passover 
Sabbath.  Like  the  needle  that  feels  the 
pull  of  the  magnetic  pole,  yet  is  unable  to 
remain  constant  because  of  disturbing  and 
intermittent  currents,  so  these  friends  of 
Jesus  could  not  find  themselves.  That  great 
magnetic  pole  to  whom  they  would  gladly 
have  been  true  still  held  a  degree  of  power 
over  them,  but  other  influences,  for  the 
moment  terrifically  potent,  beat  against 
them.  Was  it  all  over?  That  was  their 
conviction — almost.  He  of  whom  they 
had  hoped  so  much  had  come  to  an  igno- 

235 


JESUS    CHRIST    IN    HUMAN    EXPERIENCE 

minious  end  in  a  malefactor's  tomb;  but 
the  imprint  of  his  presence  was  still  too 
vivid  to  be  forgotten.  So  there  were  ques- 
tionings about  him,  even  impulses  to  return 
to  their  former  occupations;  they  went  their 
way.  But  Mary  thought  only  of  the  tomb 
and  the  body  it  contained,  and  hither  she 
came  to  weep. 

Blessed  tears  I  Drop  by  drop  they  bear 
away  the  agony  of  the  heart,  spilling  it  on 
the  breast  of  kind  old  mother  earth,  to 
come  forth,  not  in  thorns  and  bitter  herbs, 
but  in  blossoms  and  fragrance.  So,  in  the 
keen  sorrow  that  filled  her  heart,  Mary 
left  her  couch  before  the  dawn  to  pour  out 
her  tears  at  the  tomb  of  Him  whose  words 
and  presence  had  been  her  meat  and  drink. 
But  the  stone  was  rolled  away.  Without  mak- 
ing further  examination,  she  ran  to  Peter 
and  John.  They  rushed  to  the  sepulchre 
and  then  went  home,  but  not  so  with  Mary; 
she  returned  to  the  grave,  which,  though 
robbed  of  its  precious  body,  was  sacred  to 
her  because  of  Him  whose  form  it  had  so 
recently  contained. 

What  a  human  touch  is  here!  She  was 
standing  outside  weeping,  "and  as  she  wept 
she    stooped    down    and   looked    into    the 


MARY:  THE  SLANDERED  MAGDALENE 

tomb."  Did  you  ever  see  a  mother  sit 
and  weep  over  her  departed  child,  and 
then  did  you  note  her  as  she  stole  away  to 
weep  by  the  side  of  the  little  cradle  which 
had  so  lately  held  the  form  of  her  baby? 
She  gets  consolation  in  beholding  the  things 
which  ministered  to  the  comfort  of  her 
little  one.  So  Mary  stooped  to  look  once 
again  at  the  place  where  the  Lord  had 
lain. 

When  she  stooped  to  look  into  that 
vault  she  expected  to  see  nothing  more  than 
the  dimly  lighted  recess,  with  the  linen 
cloths  lying  as  Peter  and  John  had  dropped 
them  after  their  hasty  examination,  yet  she 
wanted  to  view  it  again.  What  a  revelation 
came  with  the  second  look!  Instead  of  the 
gloom,  two  radiant  forms! — "angels,'*  says 
John.  And  I  have  thought  that  we  might 
find  something  worth  while  if  we  would 
only  take  the  second  look.  Affliction  comes 
with  a  shock,  often  as  sudden  and  as  blind- 
ing as  a  flash  of  lightning.  For  a  moment 
a  man  may  lose  his  bearings,  his  sense  of 
direction,  and  not  infrequently  do  some  lose 
their  faith  entirely  and  become  hard  and 
bitter  and  cynical.  The  test  of  a  soldier  is 
not  how  he  acts  when  on  parade,  but  rather 

237 


JESUS    CHRIST    IN    HUMAN    EXPERIENCE 

how  he  Stands  the  strain  of  the  battle. 
Death  is  the  natural  and  inexorable  law, 
and  unto  it  every  animate  thing  is  subject. 
Disasters  may  come  to  us  as  they  have  to 
men  ever  since  the  beginning.  The  solemn, 
stately,  and  sometimes  awful,  tread  of  nat- 
ural law  knows  no  exemptions,  has  no  favor- 
ites. Blessed  is  he  who  does  not  allow  his 
heart  to  harden,  but,  hke  Mary,  comes  back 
to  the  tomb  and  looks  in.  The  second  view 
was  not  a  dark,  dismal  cleft,  but  a  glorious 
vision  of  two  shining  presences.  And  if 
you  will  go  back  to  that  tomb  in  which  you 
have  buried  your  dearest  possession — child, 
companion,  parent,  ambition,  what  not;  that 
tomb  from  which  you  once  turned  away  with 
resentment  and  rebeUion;  go  back  after  the 
smoke  of  the  disaster  has  vanished;  go  back 
after  the  flowers  have  blossomed  on  the 
little  mound;  go  back  after  the  tears  are 
dry  and  the  eye  sees  single — you  may  be- 
hold a  vision  that  will  rejoice  your  soul. 
HumiHty  is  a  grace  we  need  to  cultivate. 

II 

Even  the  presence  of  the  angels  and 
their  assurances  failed  to  awaken  Mary's 
consciousness  to  the  splendid  fact  that  Jesus 

238 


MARY:  THE  SLANDERED  MAGDALENE 

was  alive.  She  was  among  the  habiliments 
of  death,  and  even  angels  could  not  impress 
her  otherwise.  But  as  she  turned  herself 
from  the  door  of  the  tomb,  she  beheld  a 
man  standing  near  whose  question  was: 
*'Why  weepest  thou?"  To  this  she  replied: 
"If  thou  hast  borne  him  hence,  tell  me 
where  thou  hast  laid  him,  and  I  will  take 
him  away."  There  is  a  class  of  intelli- 
gences, other  than  undertakers,  who  seem  to 
take  a  great  deal  of  morbid  pleasure  in 
living  among  the  dead.  For  them  coffins 
and  shrouds  have  a  hypnotic  fascination. 
I  do  not  take  it  that  Mary  had  any  such 
motive  in  asking  for  the  body  of  Jesus;  she 
was  anxious  that  it  should  have  a  decent 
final  resting-place. 

It  was  not  intended  that  our  minds 
should  dwell  upon  death,  for  it  is  not  a 
wholesome  subject.  The  New  Testament 
has  little  to  say  about  the  death  of  the 
body,  but  it  has  much  to  say  about  the  life 
of  the  soul.  It  bases  its  appeal,  not  upon 
the  avoidance  of  death,  but  upon  the  en- 
trance into  life.  If  the  soul  is  constantly 
laboring  to  escape  death.  It  will  as  constantly 
feel  Its  blight,  its  terror.  Its  melancholy  re- 
straint; but  when  the  soul  works  for  life  and 

239 


JESUS    CHRIST    IN    HUMAN    EXPERIENCE 

contemplates  it,  it  is  at  once  sown  with  ten 
thousand  seeds  bursting  with  inspiration, 
seeds  that  proclaim  the  springtime  where  the 
season  is  always  in  the  ascendant  and  the 
night  never  comes. 

There  is  a  tendency  in  our  day  to  place 
Jesus  on  a  par  with  other  great  teachers 
of  morals — or,  possibly,  a  little  above.  His 
teachings  in  the  main  are  accepted,  but  the 
cardinal  fact  of  his  life — that  is,  his  resur- 
rection— is  rejected,  or  explained  in  such 
a  manner  as  to  mean  nothing.  //  Chris- 
tianity does  not  have  a  risen  Christ,  then 
it  has  no  Christ;  if  it  does  not  have  a  risen 
Christ,  then  it  has  no  message  for  the 
world,  Jesus  taught  nothing  essentially  new 
in  morals;  certainly  not,  unless  interpreted 
in  the  light  of  the  resurrection.  When  a 
person  seeks  to  make  converts  to  Chris- 
tianity by  glossing  over  this  fact,  or  by 
explaining  it  other  than  do  the  New  Testa- 
ment writers,  he  is  giving  his  cause  away, 
and  would  do  as  much  towards  binding  up 
the  broken  hearts  of  men  were  he  to  teach 
the  precepts  of  Buddha  or  the  maxims  of 
Confucius  or  the  wisdom  of  the  Vedas. 
Without  the  resurrection  there  is  no  Chris- 
tianity; a  dead  Christ  is  no  Christ     "If 

240 


MARY:  THE  SLANDERED  MAGDALENE 

Christ  hath  not  been  raised,  your  faith  is 
vain;  ye  are  yet  in  your  sins;"  and  the  cen- 
turies have  yet  to  produce  a  valid  reason 
for  rejecting  the  Apostle's  conclusion. 

Ill 

All  through  his  ministry  Jesus  had 
taught  his  resurrection  in  unmistakable 
terms,  but  not  until  Mary  heard  her  name 
spoken  by  his  blessed  lips  did  the  meaning 
of  all  that  teaching  reach  her  understand- 
ing. The  best  she  had  in  her  heart  was 
to  make  his  body  secure  from  vandals  and 
weep  over  the  memories  of  the  past.  Any 
one  who  makes  their  sorrow  an  occasion  for 
dropping  out  of  active  Christian  service 
would  do  well  to  take  a  second  look  at  the 
tomb.  Memory  will  always  hold  its  sacred 
treasures,  but  they  must  never  be  allowed 
to  vitiate  our  Christian  lives. 

Whereas  Mary  would  have  given  the 
dead  Christ  a  vine-grown  tomb  with  roses 
blossoming  about  it  and  a  well-beaten  path 
from  her  door  to  that  sacred  spot,  Jesus 
gave  her,  not  a  dead  memory  for  her  flow- 
ing tears,  but  rather  he  came  to  her  as  a 
living  reality,  a  glorious  Divine  Presence, 
the  same  Lord  she  had  known  and  loved 

16  241 


JESUS    CHRIST    IN    HUMAN    EXPERIENCE 

SO  well.  And  he  always  does  better  for 
us  than  we  are  able  to  ask  or  think.  The 
sacred  spot  of  China  is  where  the  honored 
dust  of  Confucius  rests,  but  Christianity's 
Christ  is  living,  and  his  promise  is;  "I  am 
with  you  always,  even  to  the  end."  The 
glory  of  our  holy  religion  is  not  in  strict 
dogmas  and  splendid  doctrines,  nor  espe- 
cially in  its  truth  and  precept  and  promise, 
but  rather  in  the  unique  fact  that  the  Holy 
Spirit  dwells  in  every  true  Christian  heart, 
and  that  above  all  is  the  living  and  eternal 
Christ. 

Mary  came  to  the  tomb  with  a  crushed 
spirit,  but  one  word  from  Jesus  swept  her 
grief  away  forever.  This  has  always  been 
a  pre-eminent  characteristic  of  our  Lord. 
Wherever  he  went  through  Palestine  flowers 
of  gladness  blossomed — by  the  bier  of  the 
widow's  son,  at  the  grave  of  Lazarus,  in 
the  nobleman's  house.  And  when  Chris- 
tianity began  to  be  defined  and  have  an 
influence  on  the  world  beyond  Judea,  the 
effect  of  Jesus  upon  the  heart  was  always 
the  same.  Men  brought  him  their  bruised 
spirits,  their  crooked  and  misspent  lives, 
their  sin-enslaved  bodies;  despair,  like  the 
"ominous  bird  of  night,'*  sat  at  the  portal 

242 


MARY:  THE  SLANDERED  MAGDALENE 

of  their  hearts,  but  Jesus  took  their  burdens 
and  bitterness  away  and  joy  came  instead. 
Begin  at  the  Jordan  with  the  first  life  he 
touched,  follow  him  through  the  ages — 
Paul,  Augustine,  St.  Francis,  Luther — to 
the  latest  convert,  and  the  result  is  unvary- 
ing, unspeakable  joy. 

IV 

We  can  not  know  the  ecstasy  in  Mary's 
word,  "Rabboni!"  when  she  saw  Jesus 
actually  standing  before  her,  but  we  may 
be  sure  It  was  worth  the  long  hours  of 
mental  agony  and  all  that  deep  darkness,  to 
come  at  last  into  such  glorious  light  and 
hear  again  that  familiar  greeting,  "Mary!" 
It  was  Jesus  as  she  had  never  seen  him 
before.  She  stood  near,  watching  the  coun- 
cilors as  they  wrapped  his  body  in  the 
sweet  spices,  but  to  her  then  Jesus  was  a 
man,  a  dead  man;  now  he  stood  before 
her,  not  only  as  a  living  man,  but  as  the 
living  God. 

We  experience  something  of  Mary's  joy 
when  we  open  our  hearts  to  him.  We  may 
spend  half  our  lifetime  reading  of  him  and 
acquiring  facts  about  his  life;  we  may 
travel  In  the  land  he  made  sacred  by  his 

243 


JESUS    CHRIST    IN    HUMAN    EXPERIENCE 

presence,  and  we  may  be  able  to  repeat 
many  of  his  choice  sayings,  and  all  that; 
but  there  is  a  very  vital  sense  in  which  a 
man  can  never  know  Jesus  until  he  opens 
the  door  and  gives  him  the  freedom  of  the 
house.  Then  he  will  begin  to  appreciate 
something  of  Magdalene's  joy  when  she 
beheld  the  risen  Lord  two  thousand  years 
ago,  and  his  soul  will  rejoice  in  the  happi- 
ness of  its  new-found  Friend.  When  one 
passes  through  this  experience  he  may  doubt 
many  things,  but  he  will  never  doubt  the 
presence  of  the  living  Christ. 

"I  have  seen  the  Lord."  With  these 
words  Mary  makes  her  exit  from  the  sacred 
pages,  but  could  there  be  a  more  sublime 
testimony?  When  men  look  at  us  they  have 
the  right  to  expect  that  we  bear  unusual 
testimony  because  we  have  made  an  unusual 
profession.  We  have  said  that  we  believe 
that  Jesus  Christ  is  the  risen  Son  of  God 
and  that  the  Holy  Spirit  dwells  in  the  heart 
of  the  believer.  It  Is  a  wonderful  con- 
ception, yet  when  we  attempt  to  speak  in 
the  strong  voice  of  a  Christ-dominated  man- 
hood we  lisp  and  stutter  and  the  world 
Indulgently  smiles.  Perhaps  It  Is  justified 
in    concluding    that    our   vision   is    nothing 

244 


MARY:  THE  SLANDERED  MAGDALENE 

Other  than  the  disordered  images  floating 
out  of  a  heat-oppressed  brain.  When  men 
and  women  who  claim  to  have  the  miracle 
of  grace  wrought  in  their  hearts  put  Jesus 
and  his  work  in  the  very  last  place,  or  even 
on  the  extra  list,  they  can  not  expect  the 
sinner  to  be  very  much  impressed  when  they 
tell  how  much  Jesus  means  to  them. 

*'I  have  seen  the  Lord."  After  years  of 
wandering,  Sir  Launfal  beheld  him  In  the 
beggar;  I  will  see  him  as  I  walk  among  the 
Chrlstless  ones;  I  will  see  him  looking 
through  the  dark  eyes  of  a  soul  rescued  from 
heathenism ;  I  will  see  his  hand  uplifted  where 
men  are  weary.  Only  as  we  forget  our- 
selves will  we  get  a  glimpse  of  his  face, 

O  thou  holy  Christ  of  God,  we  believe 
thou  didst  stand  before  this  good  woman 
two  thousand  years  ago.  We  pray  for  a 
faith  that  will  not  forsake  thee  even  when 
the  light  of  God  seems  darkness.  Give 
us  the  grace  to  wait  by  the  side  of  our 
dark,  unexplalnable  difficulties,  for  in  a 
tomb  the  angels  appeared.  And  as  we 
move  among  our  fellows,  we  pray  that  there 
may  be  the  unmistakable  evidence  of  the 
abiding  Spirit  within  our  hearts  that  men 
may  know  that  we  have  seen  the  Lord. 

245 


XX 

DISPOSING  OF  TROUBLESOME  FACTS 

(Matt.  28:  11-15.) 

"1X7" HEN  men  attempt  to  dam  up  the 
^^  streams  of  God's  purpose  they  usual- 
ly find  themselves  floundering  in  the  rising 
tide.  Facts  are  always  troublesome  things 
— to  the  evil-doer.  It  is  the  immutable  law 
that  facts  and  acts  must  be  in  perfect  align- 
ment. This  little  coterie  of  Jewish  priests 
and  elders  were  so  industriously  working 
to  obscure  the  divinity  of  Jesus  that  they 
forgot  the  swing  of  the  Almighty  was  not 
bounded  by  Jericho  and  Joppa,  but  that 
he  walks  the  waveless  skies  and  sits  among 
the  myriad  stars.     Said  David: 

"He  that  sitteth  in  the  heavens  will  laugh: 
The  Lord  will  have  them  in  derision." 

Never  did  men  fight  more  recklessly 
against  the  stately  march  of  the  Lord  God, 
or  call  more  desperately  upon  the  powers 
of  darkness  for  assistance;  but  Caesar's  seal 

246 


DISPOSING   OF   TROUBLESOME   FACTS 

was  nothing;  Caesar's  guard,  less.  If  there 
were  ever  a  complete  demonstration  of  the 
doctrine  of  total  depravity,  it  was  here,  for 
here  hell  burned  through.  Defeat  some- 
times throws  men  into  panic,  but  here  is 
no  panic.  When  men  sit  down  as  calmly  as 
these  and  plan  to  meet  a  great  crisis,  they 
certainly  are  not  terror-stricken.  The  vil- 
lainy of  Judas  opened  in  his  heart  that 
awful  stream  of  remorse  whose  scalding 
torrent  deluged  his  withered  and  lonely 
soul;  but  here  is  a  group  of  men  across 
whose  hearts  the  scorching  winds  of  malice 
and  hatred  had  swept  with  such  consuming 
rage  that  even  the  possibility  of  remorse 
was  burned  up  and  nothing  remained  but 
the  acrid  and  bitter  residuum  which  Mat- 
thew expresses  in  these  few  words.  With 
them  it  was  not  a  question  of  knowing  the 
facts;  rather,  how  to  raise  dust  enough  to 
obscure  them. 


The  world  of  Christian  fact  is  the  world 
of  God.  This  is  not  to  affirm  that  the 
Christian  world  is  all  of  God's  world.  But 
if  the  Scriptures  are  entitled  to  any  credit, 
we  must  admit  that  the   center   of   God's 

247 


JESUS    CHRIST    IN    HUMAN    EXPERIENCE 

moral  universe,  so  far  as  we  are  concerned, 
is  not  far  from  Joseph's  tomb.  If  we  are 
to  judge  the  Divine  Mind  by  revelation, 
then  we  are  justified  in  concluding  that  these 
years  of  Jesus  among  men  were  concerned 
in  laying  the  true  foundations  of  the  Chris- 
tian faith,  and  it  is  not  irreverent  to  say 
that  in  this  God  extended  himself  in  man's 
behalf.  The  world  in  which  Jesus  lived 
and  moved  was  peculiar  to  the  Divine 
Mind,  and  the  facts  of  Christianity  are 
peculiar  to  a  revealed  religion.  But  it  was 
intended  in  all  this  that  these  great  facts 
should  form  the  postulate,  the  major 
premise  of  our  faith. 

We  can  not  give  a  scientific  demonstra- 
tion of  Christianity.  It  can  not  be  heated 
in  the  crucible,  nor  can  we  grow  cultures 
of  it  In  the  test-tube;  it  refuses  to  yield  its 
secrets  to  the  microscope,  and  it  does  not 
furnish  even  a  beginning-point  for  the  dis- 
sector's scalpel;  it  can  neither  be  weighed 
nor  measured,  nor  has  it  temperature  or 
dimensions.  But  It  has,  nevertheless.  Its 
Important  data,  and  out  of  this  data  we 
get  what  we  have  been  pleased  to  term  the 
facts  of  Christianity.  The  size  and  weight 
of  the  superstructure  prove  that  the  foun- 

248 


DISPOSING   OF   TROUBLESOME   FACTS 

dation  is  solid,  but  Christianity  belongs 
almost  entirely  to  the  spiritual,  which  is  the 
world  of  God — so  far  as  we  know  it. 

The  human  mind  is  in  search  of  those 
things  which  will  stand  the  test.      It  does 
not  concern  itself  long  with  the  ephemeral 
and  evanescent  fancies  of  the  dreamer.     "If 
there    is    solid    rock    where    and    what    is 
it?"    is   its    earnest   query.      If   we    are    to 
have     peace     of     mind,     we     must     know 
something   of   the   fundamentals.      If   faith 
rests  on  dogma,   ignorance  or  superstition, 
or   all   three,    then   it   can   neither   be    free 
nor  healthy.     It  must  strike  its  roots  into 
something  unshaken  and  unshakable.     We 
do  not  hesitate  to  put  the  facts  of  Chris- 
tianity into  the   crucible,   because   we   have 
the   utmost   faith   in   their   ability   to   stand 
the    test.      If   you   have    noticed   the    New 
Testament    narrative,    there    has    been    no 
favor   shown,   there   has  been   none   asked. 
Jesus   Christ  accepted  the  very  worst  that 
human   depravity   could   devise,    and   after, 
under  hellish  pressure,  they  had  exhausted 
their  villainy,   he   came  out  of  the   depths 
like  a  wonderful  lily — white  and  marvelous. 
Is  it  strange  that  men  have  been  impressed 
by  such  facts? 

249 


JESUS    CHRIST    IN    HUIvIAN    EXPERIENCE 

Scientists  are  continually  revising  their 
conclusions  because  they  are  constantly  mak- 
ing new  discoveries.  The  same  is  true  of 
religionists — some  religionists !  No  man 
dare  affirm  the  theology  of  a  hundred  years 
ago  any  more  than  he  dare  affirm  the 
science  of  a  century  back.  It  was  once 
heresy  to  read  the  record  of  God  in  the 
rocks  and  to  affirm  that  the  earth  was 
round.  Science  and  dogma  have  always 
had  trouble,  and  always  will,  because 
science  is  always  young  and  always  has  a 
"nose  for  news.'^  Dogma  is  always  old 
and  rheumatic,  with  an  inherent  nature  to 
fossilize.  But  dogma  is  not  religion,  and 
in  true  religion  science  finds  her  long-lost 
twin.  In  both  there  are  a  few  things  which 
are  unchangeable.  For  religion  the  tomb 
of  Joseph  will  never  lose  its  profound 
significance;  and  from  this  sacred  spot  our 
Christian  faith  begins  its  pilgrimages  because 
it  is  the  demonstration  of  that  one  surpass- 
ing fact  which  lies  back  of  all  else:  "God 
is  love." 

II 

There  are  some  facts  which  are  un- 
pleasant and  distasteful  to  some  people,  but 

250 


DISPOSING   OF   TROUBLESOME   FACTS 

honest  men  are  always  anxious  to  get  the 
exact  truth.  This  explains  every  chemical, 
biological  and  psychological  laboratory  in 
the  land.  Progress  is  marked  only  by 
knowledge  of  the  secrets  of  the  things  we 
handle  every  day.  Everything  has  its  place 
in  the  universe,  else  we  would  have  a  multi- 
verse — confusion  and  disorder.  It  may  be 
that  the  *'known"  will  have  to  be  readjusted 
in  the  light  of  fresh  discoveries.  The  Coper- 
nican  theory  upset  the  older  Ptolemaic,  but 
it  did  the  world  no  harm.  Columbus  did 
not  prove  the  Bible  untrue  when  he  reached 
the  east  by  sailing  west,  but  he  upset  the 
old  dogma  of  a  flat  earth.  The  real  harm 
comes  in  the  spirit  that  reaches  its  hand 
for  the  throat  of  the  investigator,  which 
anathematizes  science  and  its  paraphernalia 
as  devices  of  the  devil.  This  is  the  spirit 
of  the  Inquisition,  of  the  Dark  Ages,  of 
intolerance;  it  is  the  spirit  that  crucified 
our  Lord. 

Those  degenerate  priests  found  them- 
selves In  an  unusual  position  that  Sunday 
morning.  That  the  soldiers'  story  was 
true  was  not  questioned;  there  Is  no  hint 
of  denial  or  of  Incredulity;  they  accepted 
It  as  true  beyond  doubt.     But  they  knew 

251 


JESUS    CHRIST    IN    HUMAN    EXPERIENCE 

that  it  would  be  Impossible  to  keep  these 
facts  quiet;  the  disciples  of  Jesus  would 
soon  be  telling  it,  the  soldiers  would  be 
telling  it.  If  the  two  told  the  same  story, 
so  much  the  worse  for  the  priests.  There 
was  but  one  thing  left — put  another  story 
in  the  mouths  of  the  soldiers;  hence  *'they 
gave  much  money  unto  them."  The  "truth" 
is  an  expensive  luxury!  But  this  method 
seldom  fails  of  results.  The  lUinois  State 
Legislature  recently  revealed  the  shameful 
depravity  of  its  members.  One  man  in 
Chicago  is  credited  with  saying  that  he 
could  take  $50,000  and  pass  any  bill  he 
chose.  The  Jewish  council  did  not  make 
this  discovery  nor  did  they  obtain  a  per- 
petual copyright  on  the  scheme.  It  is  as 
old  as  the  race,  yet  as  young  as  to-day.  It 
is  one  way  men  have  of  "explaining  the 
facts." 

But  a  bribe  usually  necessitates  a  He, 
and  lies  are  social  creatures  and  move  in 
large  companies.  This  "lie"  which  these 
Jewish  "religionists"  put  Into  the  mouths 
of  the  soldiers  had  three  parts:  (i)  His 
disciples  came  by  night;  (2)  they  stole 
the  body;  (3)  while  we  slept.  The  facts 
are  that  the  disciples  never  understood  the 

252 


•     DISPOSING   OF   TROUBLESOME   FACTS 

teaching  of  Jesus  concerning  the  resurrec- 
tion, hence  they  had  no  idea  of  trying  to 
propagate  his  doctrines  after  his  death;  for 
what  was  to  be  gained?  All  through 
Christ's  ministry  their  idea  was  a  restored 
temporal  kingdom,  and  when  Christ  died 
their  hope  died.  The  statement  that  a  com- 
pany of  disciplined  Roman  soldiers  slept 
while  on  duty  is  absurd,  especially  as  the 
penalty  was  death.  And  that  eleven  un- 
armed, discouraged  disciples  should  have  the 
presumption  even  to  attempt  to  steal  the 
body  from  these  armed  Roman  soldiers  is 
the  climax  of  nonsense.  But  for  money  the 
soldiers  were  willing  to  incriminate  them- 
selves. 

Hence  the  chief  priests  promised  to 
"fix  it"  with  the  Roman  judge  if  it  ever 
came  to  a  hearing  before  him.  These  are 
the  means  by  which  base  men  proposed  to 
meet  the  facts  of  the  resurrection:  bribery, 
lying,  buying  the  judge.  And  they  are  all 
too  common  crimes  in  American  public  life. 
But  facts  are  not  thus  driven  out  of  exist- 
ence. They  may  be  bludgeoned  into  the 
earth,  but,  like  the  blood  of  Hyacinthus, 
will  blossom  into  rare  and  beautiful  flowers. 
Truth  claims  the  wide  sweep  of  eternity  as 

253 


JESUS    CHRIST    IN    HUMAN    EXPERIENCE 

her  inherent  possession,  and  into  her  own 
she  will  eventually  come,. 

Ill 

Here  is  an  interesting  study  in  effects. 
Take  the  priests  and  elders:  The  irony  of 
it  is  that  they  were  the  religious  leaders  of 
Israel.  Out  of  those  twisted  and  atrophied 
things  they  called  hearts  dripped  the  dis- 
tilled venom  of  hatred  which  seared  and 
blistered  everything  it  touched,  but  its  worst 
effect  was  upon  themselves.  They  deliber- 
ately counseled  to  thwart  the  purpose  of 
God  by  keeping  men  in  ignorance  of  the 
resurrection,  or,  at  least,  by  casting  every 
possible  doubt  upon  the  fact.  They  knew 
Christ  had  risen,  and  that  it  could  be  only 
by  divine  power.  "Come  down,"  said  they 
at  the  cross,  "and  we  will  believe;"  but 
here  Jesus  had  done  a  more  marvelous 
thing,  and  instead  of  belief  they  plunged 
into  deeper  depravity. 

They  were  Israel's  spiritual  interpreters. 
What  a  ghastly  mockery  of  the  splendid 
system  of  Moses,  and  how  far  removed 
from  the  wonderful  spirit  of  Isaiah !  There 
Is  something  terrible  about  the  acts  of  these 
men.      One    experiences    something   of    the 

254 


DISPOSING   OF   TROUBLESOME   FACTS 

feeling  when  he  wanders  with  Dante 
through  the  inferno,  or  when  he  listens 
with  Milton  to  the  shouts  that  "tore  hell's 
concave."  Samson  pulled  the  Philistine 
temple  down  upon  himself  and  the  revelers, 
but  these  men  were  doing  a  thousand  times 
worse;  they  were  pulling  destruction  down 
on  the  last  remnant  of  the  nation  which  the 
faith  of  Abraham  had  rejoiced  to  see.  Yet 
out  of  the  crash  and  dust  of  the  falling 
structure  came  the  facts  of  the  Son  of  God 
— unharmed.  They  fit  into  the  human 
conscience  perfectly,  and  to  reject  them  is 
to  strangle  the  soul. 

It  Is  Interesting  to  conjecture  what  must 
have  passed  in  the  minds  of  the  soldiers. 
They  were  In  contact  with  the  representa- 
tives of  the  *^one  true  religion,"  which  of 
all  religions  was  the  most  narrow  and 
intolerant.  But  what  had  the  Jews'  religion 
made  of  them?  Rather,  what  had  they 
made  of  their  religion?  Even  those  pagan 
soldiers  had  enough  moral  sense  to  know 
that  they  were  beside  themselves  with 
hatred.  How  did  this  brand  of  religion, 
which  permitted  bribery,  lying  and  per- 
verted justice.  Impress  the  soldiers?  "What 
you  are  speaks  so  loud  that  I  can  not  hear 

255 


JESUS    CHRIST    IN    HUMAN    EXPERIENCE 

what  you  say."  It  is  what  a  man  does  when 
not  thinking  of  his  church  affiHation,  what 
he  does  when  following  his  natural  impulses 
and  inclinations,  that  gives  his  fellows  their 
estimate  of  the  worth  of  his  religion  and 
his  moral  character.  Those  Jews  had  done 
an  injury  to  the  moral  nature  of  those  soldiers 
which  was  irreparable. 

All  this  villainy  hurled  against  the  new 
faith  had  precisely  the  opposite  effect  from 
that  intended.  Never  was  testimony  more 
universally  discredited  than  theirs.  The 
very  first  proclamation  of  the  mission  of 
Jesus  and  his  invitation  unto  men  turned 
Jerusalem  upside  down.  The  impact  of  the 
new  faith  upon  Judaism  was  terrific,  because 
it  had  the  indisputable  proof  of  the  risen 
Christ. 

O  God,  we  thank  thee  that  in  the  Chris- 
tian universe  there  is  one  sublime  fact  upon 
which  we  postulate  our  faith  and  from 
which  we  make  our  journeys.  The  vicious 
assaults  of  men  have  only  added  to  Its 
glory;  they  have  been  the  storms  which 
have  cleared  the  atmosphere  and  have 
aided  the  growth  of  the  sturdy  oak.  Thou 
art  our  shield  and  defense,  and  thou  hast 
made  the  wrath  of  men  to  praise  thee. 

256 


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